


A Mermaid and a Demon

by PagingPaige, pesha



Category: Original Work, The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 02:23:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3157622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PagingPaige/pseuds/PagingPaige, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pesha/pseuds/pesha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ariel finds herself on board <i>Eternity</i>, a luxury cruise ship that collects all sorts of people.</p>
          </blockquote>





	1. Making the Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ariel finds herself on board _Eternity_ , a luxury cruise ship that collects all sorts of people.

**Ariel:** What a wonderful place! Do walls usually change colors and designs when you touch them? Has anyone seen my Prince? I only have three days.

 **Vetis:** Princes are boring. How do you feel about chiefs? 

 **Ariel** : Why do you say Princes are boring? Prince Eric is wonderful! I wanted to go dancing with him. He danced on the ship, to the fire in the sky and to the music!

 **Vetis:** All they care about is court, court, court. I don't know any Eric though so maybe he's interested in more than being a monarch. I'm interested in more than ruling and I definitely wouldn't mind dancing with a pretty girl.

 **Ariel:** He seemed at home on the sea. I love him, truly! The Sea Witch Ursula only gave me three days to kiss him, to stay human forever and I'll get my voice back. I would so love to dance though! I am a bit unsteady. Feet are much different from fins. 

 **Vetis:** You normally have fins?

 **Ariel:** I'm a mermaid, unfortunately. 

 **Vetis:** Unfortunately? I think that's pretty interesting. I've lived a long time and never met a mermaid before.

 **Ariel:** That is unsurprising. My father forbids trips to the surface and there are not many who would disobey him. 

 **Vetis:** Parents are always big on _forbidding_ things. I've never been good at being forbidden anything. You could say it was why I left home.

 **Ariel:** Me too! Father doesn't understand. He's to afraid. Humans are marvelous! Just because a few are bad, doesn't mean all of them are! 

 **Vetis:** I'm not as fond of humans, but their world? It's filled with all sorts of things that I love in all sorts of ways that I'm not at liberty to talk about with you seeing as you seem so very young and all.

 **Ariel:** What are you, if you aren't a human or a merman? I've just turned 18, you know. I missed my- well, I suppose you would say debut, because I was exploring a shipwreck. There'd been a shark and then Flounder and I went to see Scuttle and he told me all about the banded, bulbous snarfblatt. He's really quite knowledgeable. 

 **Vetis:** I've been around a lot longer than men or mermen. I don't remember being 18. Your friend sounds something alright. What were you debuting? Were they going to marry you off?  

 **Ariel:** Are you a god? Scuttle is a seagull. He's the only connection to the human world I have, really. He explains everything to me, because he's seen so much. It was just a celebration that I was of age. None of my sisters are married. Father is not so cruel as to marry us off one by one. It was meant to be my introduction but rehearsals were always so boring. I'd much rather be exploring shipwrecks! Humans are much more fascinating than singing, though Ursula says I don't need my voice to get a kiss from my Prince. She says I only need body language and that women don't speak much at all.

 **Vetis:** I'm beginning to like this Ursula. I like a quiet girl. It usually means she's got secrets. Are you a girl with secrets? 

 **Ariel:** I have secrets from my father? 

 **Vetis:** That must be nice. I can't have secrets from my father. I'm not a god, but my father? He's the Creator. What kind of secrets do you keep from your father?

 **Ariel:** Who's he? What did he create? He doesn't know how many times I've been to the surface. He doesn't even know I traded my soul to Ursula for legs! I really must find Prince Eric. I don't want to belong to the Sea Witch. Daddy didn't know about my collection of human things, or how badly I wanted to go to the surface, but then Sebastian showed him. He destroyed everything! All of my knicknacks and whatnots! 

 **Vetis:** Everything. My father Created everything. What a terrible thing to do! Destroy your collection. That sounds like something my father would do. So, tell me, would you like to keep your legs forever? 

 **Ariel:** He created me? Daddy was really mad. He hates humans, just like he hated music when I was a little girl. I don't blame him, exactly. My mother died when a ship caught her against a rock. We'd been playing and when we scattered, she forgot her music box and went back for it, but she got caught. I just wish he gave other humans a chance.  
  
You could do that for me?

 **Vetis:** He Created the first of your kind. Mortals. You specifically were born, not Created. You had parents. I only had the Creator.  
  
I'm sorry for the loss of your mother. It's hard to lose a parent, I'm told.  
  
Oh yes. I could do that for you. That's easy. What would it be worth to you?

 **Ariel:** I think I understand.  
  
I was very young, only five. I only remember the sound of my mother's voice, singing me to sleep.  
  
Anything. Everything. I can't give you my voice. I gave that to Ursula. I would be human forever? 

 **Vetis:** Would you give me your soul? I could give you back your voice and I could make you human if you wanted. I could give you _choices_. Would that be worth your soul?

 **Ariel:** Yes. How do I do it?

 **Vetis:** It's not as hard as you might think. I don't take anything at all from you until after your life has passed by. All you have to do is meet with me and we make arrangements for what you want and how I can give it to you. After you've agreed? Well. That's when you sign. It's easy and a lot less painful than giving up your voice I imagine.

 **Ariel:** Giving up my voice was [...] disconcerting. I only had to sing and it seemed like I was choking on it as it slipped from my throat. But then, water was filling my lungs and Flounder brought me to the surface. Can I come see you now? I don't want to waste any time.

 **Vetis:** That sounds---unpleasant. I would be honored if you'd like to come visit me tonight. I'm on the D Deck. 

 **Ariel:** It was worth it, for my legs. I'll be there as soon as the sun sets! In the mean time, I think I'll go explore.

 **Vetis:** That sounds exciting. I do love exploring. You'll have to tell me what you find when you come to see me. See you soon, pretty mermaid. 

 **Ariel:** Ariel. My name's Ariel. I'll tell you all about it once I have my voice back. I'll even sing for you, if you'd like.


	2. The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ariel goes to meet the person who can give her back her voice and make her legs permanent.

'Holy' was a word that had lost a lot of its power over the evolution of Man. As language evolved, it stopped being sacred in the eyes of the public and somehow became an acceptable alternative to 'real' curse words. Pop culture abounded with saying that included it such as 'holy smoke!' or 'holy moley!' or even 'holy cow!' which was ridiculous even if it did have some basis in actual world religion if one took Hinduism into account.

Man tended to do that a lot with the things that mattered: water it down.

That didn't mean that it stopped mattering however, especially where real holiness was concerned.

Temptation had been the Original Sin in the eyes of many in Heaven and Hell -though there were dissenters who said that was debatable- and no one knew more about it than Vetis, patron demon of Corruption, and Tempter of the Holy.

Vetis had spent eons crafting his skills. He had devised ways to take down even the highest members of the Church right up to the point that the Church began to lose a lot of its holiness. When the demon had realized that there were Men in vestments and holy raiments who were no more pure than itself, Vetis had been disgusted enough to retreat to Hell for an entire century above. It had taken much coaxing to get Vetis back above. He'd wound up spending his first decade topside simply drinking before he had realized that there were still holy creatures abounding.

They were simply not considering themselves holy anymore as much as pure.

Purity was the new holy from what Vetis could tell and there were hordes of delicious young devotees to its name who even identified themselves helpfully with rings and bracelets and necklaces. It was as if there was a new religion in town inviting the demon to come feast on its worshipers with chiming bells with all their Purity Forever! pride on display; Vetis had eaten that up until the modern era had once again shifted to start making that idea seem out of style.

He had been trying to determine if it were worth staying above or if he should simply go back below for another hundred years to wait out the trend of whoring out toddlers for fifteen minutes of fame on television when he'd woken up in Eternity itself.

There was something eerily nothing about the ship that had disconcerted Vetis for the first few days of his stay aboard. He had spoken only to his own kind until a post had caught his eyes.

It had been a shock that the girl had agreed almost immediately to a deal with him, but he figured that she would likely change her mind upon showing up. If she showed up at all, Vetis thought with a smile at himself in the mirror as he adjusted the neat cravat at his neck. Vetis had a tendency to enjoy the styles of the dandies that had come before. He loved '20s suits and everything from the Victorian era. There was something to be said for a good suit and the one he'd chosen to meet Ariel in had a lot going for it.

Sleeking his hair back, Vetis moved to open the door to his cabin with a smile in place that faded as the feeling of a 'pure' presence coming toward him became nearly overwhelming.

"How are you real?" he asked suddenly, his vulpine features losing much of their usual slyness as he stared at her in something approaching shock.

Ariel loved exploring ships. In fact, she would've wagered she was one of the best explorers of ships out there, though she was unsteady on her feet. It took her at least three hours to not hold on to something as she moved through the hallways, exploring the vacant rooms. Many of them held things she didn't know or understand, but it was still lovely to see. She felt the different fabrics under her skin and sat on nearly every flat surface she could find. Ariel particularly loved the doorway that led to a railing overlooking a wooden floor and she sat down, letting her legs dangle over the edge. She'd sat there for fifteen minutes, swinging her legs back and forth.

Unaware of exactly how to dress herself in human form, Ariel had stuck to the most obvious types of clothes found in the cabinet in her room. The dress she'd chosen was a loose floral shift that wasn't put on quite the right way. She hadn't put the sleeves on, just let the extra fabric hang from under her arms like ribbon ends. Ariel was barefoot, wanting to enjoy the feel of her new found feet and legs. She worked her way easily from one end all the way around back to where she began and then up to the next level. So many new contraptions and strange things! There was one room that had a metal box that was still warm! She didn't know what it was and there was no way she could ask, considering her voice was gone.

When she finally made her way to the room Vetis had told her about, Ariel was bubbling with questions. If Vetis could do what he said and give her legs permanently, as well as her voice, she hoped he would also answer her questions. She knocked like she'd seen a few people do that she'd passed in the halls and smiled brilliantly when it proved to be the right thing to do.

His question confused her though, and her expression was clear as day on her face. She opened her mouth, words beginning to form, but then she remembered and her hand went to her throat. Her wide blue eyes took on a sad look to them, but Ariel pushed it away. She didn't want him to think she was sad. A smile reappeared on her lips and she lifted her hand to gesture to inside to his room, silently asking if she could enter.

As stunned as he was by the force of her purity, Vetis spent a solid minute, an entire sixty seconds of silent confusion, completely unable to process why she wasn't saying anything. He nearly slapped himself in the face when he recalled that she had already traded her voice to a witch for the ability to walk on land. That bargain seemed ludicrous to him. Of what use would her voice be to a witch? Any witch worth her salt should have been able to do a replication spell to mimic a voice without having to barter a complex transformation spell for one.

That didn't even match up in terms of a one-to-one ratio.

"I'm sorry. I forgot you can't talk right now. Here. I'll make it up to you as a gift for keeping you waiting in the hall while I stared at you like an idiot."

Vetis reached out to touch her throat lightly with two fingers. He focused harder than he had in years to will the witch's spell to an end, healing her voice with a part of his own life force when it seemed that unholy magic alone could not overwhelm the spell already in place upon her. It was something that he had never had to do in all his existence, but it didn't feel like much of a sacrifice once he realized that he'd done it.

Giving her a big grin in reaction, the demon waved her in, "There. Now, you can come in and I've given you something in return for your name. Names are important where I'm from. They get thrown around up here on the land and I imagine that's the same where you're from in the sea. It's not like that where I'm from so---thank you, Ariel. It's nice to meet you."

He stepped out of the way to let her come into his cabin which was already shaping up nicely to match his tastes. There was a small sitting area with a low, sleek black sofa and a giant footstool that could double as a table easily in front of it. His bed was a white confection of modern perfection which seemed to defy gravity behind them while the black minimalist desk with his devices on it made it seem all the more delicate in comparison. Vetis had always preferred a world made up of blacks and whites and nothing gray in between.

There was nothing gray about Ariel. She was pure white if he'd ever seen it and he just couldn't stop staring at her in reaction.

Ariel was fearful that she'd done something to upset him when he just looked at her. Every second stretched out for an eternity and she lip began to waver just as he apologized. Immediately, she was smiling again, waving off his words so exuberantly that she lost her balance for a moment and caught herself on his arms as he reached out for her neck. She stilled, breath caught in her throat, as she felt his magic go to work. She hadn't thought that he might not be able to do as he promised, it just wasn't how she worked. Ariel was too trusting of others, particularly when it came to getting what she wanted.

It took a few long moments, for her to feel the warmth of her voice returning to her. When she did feel her voice, Ariel closed her eyes and began to hum, perfectly on tune as she tested her voice. "Thank you," she breathed, eyes watering at the sound of her soft, sweet voice. Ariel threw her arms around him to give him a hug and even kissed his cheek, the same way she always did with her father when he was particularly indulgent. She thought nothing of the gesture and hummed to herself once more as she stepped into the room.

"It's so lovely to meet you, Vetis. You must be very powerful to counter one of Ursula's contracts," Ariel replied, half singing the words together just because she could. Oh, how she had missed her voice from the moment she'd given it up. Really, it hadn't been that long in the grand scheme of things but to her? It had been too long. How could she have ever hoped to go three days without her voice?

She ran her fingers over the fabric of the sleek black couch before taking a seat, putting her legs up to the side, over the arm rest. From the look on her face, it was clear she thought this was a completely normal way to sit on the couch. "I won't have to give my voice up again, will I? If it means keeping my legs, I would do it in a heartbeat if only you'd let me sing once more," she bargained, wanting to sing just one more song. She hadn't had any warning or a chance to barter for a last song, but Vetis seemed kind. Ariel looked up at him hopefully, her fate resting in his hands.

He wasn't nearly as scary as Ursula, which made her happy. She trusted him immediately.

Her thanks had caught him off guard enough that Vetis actually raised a hand to touch his cheek where her lips had been pressed. It had been a pure kiss. Innocent. There was the faintest sensation of heat where her sheer goodness had touched his vessel and Vetis blushed involuntarily in reaction which hadn't happened to him since the time he'd been caught trying to steal from one of his brothers on his first day in Hell.

As off-balance as he was from that, Vetis found himself speechless as he realized that she must have gotten his name from the transference of power that he'd used to heal her voice.

Demons of healing typically had to use either black magic or a sacrifice of some sort to perform their acts. The only ones that Vetis knew to be different was the patron of the art, Valefor, and the emperor's personal physician, Uphir, though he knew that both of them had their own burdens to bear in exchange for what supposed good their healing could do. He had never imagined that healing her could cost him anything, especially not his name, and suddenly he needed to sit down before he fell down.

Ariel was the purest soul he'd ever met who had no contract to either side. Could Vetis have already have tainted her without meaning to? Was it possible that he could have corrupted her from nothing more than a healing touch?

It made the flush in face fade away, his skin paling once more as he tried to reason out only he didn't know. He didn't know anything about something like this.

"Ariel?" he tried quietly as he sat down on the plush ottoman opposite her, "When I healed you, did you learn anything else about me? That's where you got my name, I think, since I never gave it to you and I'm called Kevin on the ship's roster. I'm not angry . It just makes me worry for you. I---I'm not the nicest person though I am powerful and I would like to keep you nice. Okay? Did you see anything else?"

His life moved in fast forward through his memories, contracts with innocents, priests begging for forgiveness for sins committed with him, nuns weeping for the vows they'd broken at his request, churches becoming unholy grounds which welcomed Hell's best and worst for gatherings and on and on. They weren't regrets for Vetis, not for the demon of corruption, but they would be if they had ruined this one's soul before he'd even had a chance to see more than a glimpse of it up close.

Ariel was completely oblivious to Vetis until he sat down in front of her, sounding concerned. She'd busied herself with songs, humming her favorite tunes softly at first and the growing louder until she was nearly singing when he came to sit down in front of her. She worried she'd done something wrong as each word passed his lips and she wanted to reassure him that he wasn't a mean person. Ariel leaned forward, toward him, and slipped off the couch, hitting the floor with a dull thud. She winced and pulled her legs beneath her, not noticing that the fabric of her dress had slid up to reveal most of her legs. Her arms went to Vetis' legs, resting in such a way that she could put her chin on top of her hands and look at him.

"It was just your name, but I'll call you Kevin. I don't remember how I knew your name, just that I did." He'd said names were important, hadn't he? After all, if he'd give her her voice back just for telling him her name, that was very important. "I should give you something in return for your name, like you did with my voice, right?" Ariel looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't have much of anything, but I can sing for you," she offered. "I have the most beautiful voice of all my sisters. If that's not enough, I'll find a way to repay you, and for my legs as well, if you'll still help me?"

There was real fear there that he would renege on his offer to make her legs permanent. She wanted to be human, to walk with man and learn all there was to know. She didn't want Vetis to give up anything he wasn't comfortable with though, and he'd been so kind to return her voice to her. Maybe she could find another Prince to give her true love's kiss in the time she had remaining, or she would meet another person with the ability to make her legs permanent.

"You're a very nice person, Ve-Kevin," she insisted, correcting herself with a slight blush. "You've given me my voice back. If nothing else, I'll enjoy my last two days as a human," Ariel comforted him. "That is something I don't know I could repay you for." She gave him another brilliant smile as she leaned her cheek against her arm and looked up at him from his lap.

Any other woman who fell to her knees with that much disregard for how it'd look only to rest her face in his lap would have had Vetis thinking that his day was about to get much, much better. Given that it was Ariel -pure, pure Ariel- he knew that he was more likely to start getting a new cramp in his life to add to the headache already starting to bloom to life between his eyes. He had no idea what to do with her except let her sit there while making her ridiculously sweet offers to him.

Sweetness was his weakness as much as it was his greatest weapon against those holier than the masses. It made everything feel richer to him and it caught the attention more than a hateful demand ever could. Vetis knew from personal experience that no one pure of heart would ever be able to resist another supposed innocent in trouble which was why he'd played the lost boy so often that he had taken the human name 'Peter' for a while for the sheer irony.

"Kevin is what I make the humans---people call me. People I don't know," Vetis cursed himself soundly in his head as he stammered at her as if he were the one of them with no experience to call up, "You can call me, V. My friend calls me that. I'll be honest, Ariel, meeting you is enough to make up for the name. I doubt you even know what to do with it."

The complete truth was that Vetis knew Ariel had no idea what to do with his name. She was innocent enough that it wouldn't even occur to her to abuse that power even if she did which made it all the sweeter. He almost wanted to hear her say it again for no other reason than that it was such a rare occasion that he ever heard his true name spoken aloud for any good reason. It was usually some contract somewhere demanding his attention or ordering him to do something to meet a bargain he should have thought through a little better ages ago when it had been made.

He thought of all the things he could ask her for to repay him for his 'kindness' only to duck his head with a flush because he really, really didn't need that kind of thinking with her face in his lap.

Barely resisting the urge to apologize to her for having impure thoughts, Vetis offered, "I'll keep you human while we're on the ship until you tell me you want to change, alright? We'll talk about making it forever some other time. Don't worry about days though. I can keep that spell at bay. It's no trouble here. We're a long way from that witch you bargained with and I'm---not her kind. Wouldn't you feel more comfortable singing from the couch? Over there?"

Farther away from my lap, Vetis thought as he surreptitiously scrunched back from her while trying not to look at her mouth or her breasts or any other part of her that was too, too, too close to him.

The smile she'd given him before paled in comparison to the smile she gave him when he said she could call him V, as his friend did. She had a friend! Flounder and Scuttle were her friends, but Vetis was different. It was true that she didn't know what to do with his name, or the power it held, but she knew how important her name being said could be. She pushed up on her knees to become just a little bit taller and she reached her hand up to cup his face. "A name can be said in many ways, whether anger, frustration, thanks, or love. It's a very important thing and, if you'd like, I'll only ever call you Vetis when we're alone and V every other time," she promised sincerely, her voice making a soft melody of his name. He was very handsome, and so kind. Ariel didn't think he understood the value of what he'd given her.

His cheeks flushed as he ducked his head and she lowered hers to his lap once more. She didn't understand exactly what he was offering though. "You mean I could be a mermaid for a little while and then I could go back to being human?" She asked only because he might prefer to see her natural state and there was nothing she would deny him. Not after the kindness he gave her.

He distracted her once more as he gestured over to the couch and Ariel gave him a sheepish smile. "I would prefer the couch, I think," Ariel agreed, pushing herself up by bracing herself on his legs. This time she sat down on the couch mimicking the way he was sitting on the ottoman. Once she was settled, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to sing _Part of Your World_ with all her heart, showcasing the intense desire and longing she had to be human, to walk among them as an equal. Her wonder at the simplest things, like fire or her legs, showed in both her tone and her face. There was no denying her natural talent and it seemed everything about her was amplified, from her innocence to her beauty and beyond. She expressed herself with her whole body, from the expressions in her eyes to the way she swayed with the melody.

When she finished, Ariel focused again on Vetis, a light blush coloring her cheeks. Tears filled in her eyes and she did nothing to stop them from falling. She loved to sing and having her voice back was overwhelming. "Thank you," she breathed, her voice thick with gratitude and emotion. She wanted to know what he thought of the gift he'd given her and her need for reassurance was overwhelmingly obvious in her eyes. His approval mattered to her, more than she realized.

"I would really like that," Vetis whispered, feeling thousands of years younger than any other day of his life as Ariel, some pure female creature of mortal birth, touched his face and offered to say his name for no other reason than sheer kindness.

His skin heated slightly from her touch before she flushed and moved away. Vetis had  thought that he'd wanted that, her to move away from him, but perversely he missed her closeness the moment she was gone from him. She managed to sit on the couch as if she were any other woman though there was nothing ordinary about her to him. It was---it was magic for him to look at her. Everything about her was nearly blinding to him because of the sheer purity of her soul shining all around her.

Vetis tried to remind himself that he'd tempted many pure souls in the past. It was only that it had been such a long time since he'd seen one that he was reacting foolishly. That was it. He could nearly hear his closest friend hissing 'stupid ' into his ear as he stared at her in something approaching awe while she sang.

He replied back to her, "Thank you. It's been a long time since I've heard angels sing. I hated it when it was my every day life, but that's everyone, right? You never know you'll miss something until it's gone. That's why I would, well if you wanted, I would, not to say that I don't think you'd want, I just---I would give you the ability to choose. To change shapes. Forms. Beings. You could be a mermaid or a woman. I'm really not saying this well at all."

It was mortifying to be unable to talk to her without stumbling over every single world as if he were even half the age that he looked. Vetis scrubbed a hand over his slicked back hair, ruffling it out of place as he gave her a boyish grin in repentance for being such an idiot around her. He imagined that Ariel wouldn't even know why he was being stupid though he hoped that she would pass it off as some kind language barrier. Merpeople had to have different words for things than land-dwellers. Language was always controlled by its region of origin. That was something that never changed throughout time and Vetis had learned it a lot longer ago than he'd learned how to corrupt souls.

"I just know what it's like to make a choice to be something and never have the chance to go back to being," Vetis hesitated before finally deciding to go with the easiest route to finish his thought out, "Well, what you were before. I don't want you to have regrets. You said you have sisters, right? Wouldn't you miss them if you could never see them again? And your family, do you think they wouldn't miss you if you could never see them since you'd decided to keep your legs forever? You seem really young so you might think they wouldn't miss you or you wouldn't miss them, but trust me, I know from experience, it's your family you wind up thinking about as you get older and it's hard to want to see someone while knowing that you never will again. It's really hard."

Ariel nodded when he said he'd like it if she used his name while they were in private. Of course she could do that for him and, quite honestly, she wanted to use his name. It was a beautiful mystery, just like him. She wanted to know everything, anything she could, both of humans and of Vetis. What was his world like? His life? Who were his friends? What did he like to do? What stories could he tell her? She thoroughly enjoyed the sound of his voice and could quite happily listen to him for hours on end.

She was confused when he said it had been a long time since he'd heard angels sing. She wasn't an angel, she was a mermaid. Ariel tried to follow his words as he explained his offer of a choice, but she grew more confused with each word that passed through his lips. Change shapes? So she could become a dinglehopper? Or a snarfblatt? He clarified by saying he could let her choose between being a mermaid and a human, which she understood much better. To have that kind of choice...Ariel could barely comprehend it. She could change at will? He could do that? He would do that? For her?

Ariel felt her heart swell in her chest. That feeling for him only grew as he explained why he would give her a choice. She wept openly as she realized the full weight of the deal she'd made with Ursula. Eric wasnt here, her father and sisters were nowhere to be found. She was all alone, save for Vetis, and she felt it all too keenly now. "I-" she tried, but her tears were too much, the emotion too thick. She took a moment to calm herself just long enough to speak. "I made the deal with Ursula out of anger with my father," she admitted, feeling foolish for her actions. The last memory she had of her father was the destruction of her grotto and the heartbreak it caused her.

He was so blinded by his fear of humans. If she could transition easily between Atlantis and the human world, perhaps he would be more accepting? Ariel dared to hope that might be the case, and it touched her deeply that Veris would offer to give her true freedom. Unashamed of her tears, Ariel didn't think to wipe them away. She reached for him again, hand taking his, and even though it wasn't enough, Ariel wasn't certain her legs could support her if she tried to move closer to him. It dawned on her, then, that he was speaking from personal experience.

"I am sorry for your loss, Vetis," she offered, moving to sit next to him through sheer force of will. She wobbled, but she didn't fall this time and the moment she was sitting next to him, she rested her head on his shoulder. "You will always be able to see me, I promise," Ariel added with fierce conviction, giving his hand a squeeze. "And I- I would like that choice. To move freely between mermaid and human." He was giving her so much. She nearly started crying again. No matter what happened, Ariel would never forget Vetis. Never.

Most demons, true demons, were actually numbered among the fallen of Heaven; they all knew plenty about what it was to act out of anger against their father. Vetis himself had acted out of anger against The Creator though he had never come to regret that decision. He did miss his family, all those who were lost to him, but he did not regret falling. His Grace had never felt as delectable as that which could be found in a pure soul of a mortal. Tasting that was worth falling and Hell? It was far more his home than Heaven had ever been.

Ariel surprised him by weeping from the strength of her emotions. Men often couldn't deal with the tears of women, but Vetis had a far different reaction to tears than mortal men. Tears were overwhelming for him. They were the purest of all expressions of emotion and the most honest. There was nothing more fine than a pure soul weeping except perhaps a pure soul weeping because of him. He was trying to get himself together when she moved to sit beside him, lay her head on his shoulder as if he were the most trustworthy of all beings and it did much too much for him.

Stammering slightly, he announced, "I did out of anger, wait. I acted out of anger against my father. That's how I fell. From Grace. Demons are not the only beings who will barter for a soul, but if anyone ever offers to bargain for yours? You should assume they're a demon until, well, until you know they're not. They won't tell you. Demons. They won't tell you they're demons though you should know they recoil in the face of anything holy. You could get a holy totem to carry. It would protect you. I would get you one, but I'm a demon. Fallen. I. Before I was an angel and now I'm fallen and they call us demons. There's really no such thing as a demon. They're either fallen or hellspawn or legionnaires or something other. Demons aren't a thing. Not really. I'm sorry. Can you stop crying? It's really, really a lot. For me. Please?"

He needed her to stop crying. Ariel was already enough of a temptation without her weeping for him and trusting him and radiating such pure light that he felt as if he were lying on a beach made out of purity soaking up its warmth. Vetis felt as if he could have rolled around in her emotions alone for hours. She didn't even need to touch him for him to feel overwhelmed by her. The touching was too much, much too much, and he was damned but that didn't mean that he deserved to be tortured.

"I promise I won't cheat you. If you'll agree to stop crying right now, I might promise to do nearly anything and believe it or not my kind is bound by our word as surely as any angel if you invoke our names."

That was the key: invoking their true names. Fallen couldn't be bound by their word otherwise. They were free to lie as much as they wanted unlike their angel brethren.

Ariel wore her emotions on her sleeve and there was no holding back what she felt or how she felt it. Everything she felt was strong, stronger than most other people. She loved her father more than anything, her sisters and her friends too. She'd been so obsessed with her love for Prince Eric and so consumed by her anger at her father that she hadn't needed much convincing to take Ursula's deal. She wanted to be loved, that was the core of it. When her father had destroyed her grotto, her treasures, she felt as though he'd destroyed a part of her and how could anyone who loved her take that away from her? But on Eternity, she didn't have her father, her sisters, or her friends. She had Vetis and after everything he'd done for her, she couldn't help but have those same feelings for him that she had felt for Prince Eric when she'd made the deal with Ursula. He was so kind, so full of life, stories and knowledge. She wanted to learn everything she could about him, about his world.

She focused on the solidness of his shoulder beneath her head, the sound of his breathing and then the sound of his voice. Ariel liked that he stammered slightly, as if she made him nervous. The thought was amusing because he was so much more experienced in the ways of the world than she was. Hearing his voice helped her calm down, even though the tears still fell, silently now, and her sobs slowed as she got distracted hearing about demons and angels and what he mentioned. "I'm sorry," Ariel apologized, lifting her head to wipe away her tears. She put more effort behind focusing on her breathing and soon enough her eyes were dry, though she still sniffled a little bit. "I didn't mean to bother you." That was the last thing she wanted.

"I don't want to carry a holy totem if it means it would have an affect on you," she started after a moment, once she was sure she could speak without her breath hitching. "You're a Fallen Angel? What...what does that mean?" Atlantis had Gods, their own Pantheon, but they didn't have angels or demons. Just Gods who amounted to both sides of the coin that kept the balance in the world. It was rumored that her family was descended from the God that ruled over the oceans, of whom the trident her father wielded belonged rightfully.

She shook her head when he made promises to her that she didn't need. "Vetis, I know you wouldn't cheat me. I trust you. You don't need to give me your word. I don't want you to be bound to doing something if you don't want to do it," she insisted, somewhat alarmed that he might have already bound himself to do something he didn't want. "I won't invoke your name. I promise." Not that she knew exactly what that meant, but Ariel thought she knew enough to avoid invoking his name. He was giving her so much, how could she ever take away his choices? That's what she saw the invocation of his true name as, a way to take away his freedom. Her promise, her words, were so sincere, so full of emotion and conviction, that she nearly wavered in speaking from the strength of it.

Ariel knew she must look a mess, eyes red and bloodshot, cheeks stained from her tears, but it didn't matter because she was making a promise. He needed to see the conviction, the promise in her eyes just as strong as they were in her words. It was in her nature to touch, and it was part of her way of expressing herself. She reached for his hands, wanting to touch him in some way, to feel connected to him. All Ariel wanted to do was give him a physical sign of reassurance that there was truth to her words, even though it was more than obvious how much truth there were to her words. She would never lie to him.

Bother him? Vetis tried not to let himself think at all about how innocent Ariel had to be in order to think that his issue was that she was bothering him. Thinking about that wouldn't help him at all. It was enough to make him give a strained, slightly off laugh, his eyes crinkling at their edges as he smiled at her, shaking his head at her line of thinking. She was everything he had missed in his prey and everything he'd not found in too long for him to be capable of handling her well.

It was easier to think about questions he could answer than ones he'd rather not have to address with her. Vetis could tell her about Heaven, about Hell, about the Creation. Those were things he could talk about without feeling anything anymore. None of those things moved him. Heaven wasn't a place he missed; Hell wasn't a place he regretted being any more than he enjoyed being in. His home was wherever he felt like living at the time. Vetis wasn't a the kind of demon who set up shop anywhere for eons at a time. That was why he was comfortable settling for the rank of chief without feeling the need to fight for a higher rank in the court. It wasn't as if he felt he was missing out by being lower ranked in the court.

"Fallen means," Vetis tried to think of a way to explain it to her that she might understand, "It means a lot of things. Man, the humans you want to be like with the legs and the souls and their mortality? They tend to think that Fallen means 'evil' while the pure angels are 'good,' but that's not exactly true. There are very few things that are either good or evil. Fallen can do good as easily as a pure angel. It's true that they can't sin without losing their Grace, but we're capable of living a pure life. We have a choice. They don't."

Free will was limited for pure angels. They were Created to serve. It was their purpose in life to do whatever the Creator had designed them to do without question. There were options for pure angels in terms of their personal lives, but, ultimately, their lives were meant to be lived in servitude to the Creator which often overrode any personal desires that they might have had. Nothing was a choice for them except to serve. If they chose not to serve as they were intended to do, that was enough all on its own to take their Grace from them, numbering them among the Fallen.

Vetis had been Created to serve a Virtue. He had been lower ranking among the angels though he had never minded that since being in the presence of the Virtue he'd served had been enough to keep him satisfied. As he had been taught to check in every day with his Virtue, there was no lack of comfort passed his way from that great angel. That was something which he did miss as pure love came from Virtues. His favorite sibling tended to tell him he'd wound up as Corruption only because he was always looking for pure love.

Speaking slowly to try to avoid rushing through an explanation, he offered, "You should always make something like me give you their word. It's binding and they won't like it, but you should do it anyway because you can't trust them. Us. Me. That's not about being evil as much as it is that we're not usually good at resisting temptation. I'm not. Definitely. So, Ariel, I, Vetis, give you my name as my bond and my oath that I will not cheat you in this or any dealings you make with me. There. You're protected now. I can't cheat you even if I might want to later because you are---really tempting."

He laughed when she apologized, which hurt her feelings quite a bit, but she thought it sounded as though he was laughing so that he wouldn't cry. Ariel knew she'd done something wrong, she just wasn't sure what that was, or how she could fix it, other than to not cry again. That would be fairly easy, provided they didn't talk about upsetting things. She would be happy going exploring, she thought to herself. Maybe she could get him to join her in exploring the ship, and he could explain things to her. That would be nice.

"You're not evil, so I believe you," Ariel announced, giving him a warm smile. She couldn't think, not even for a second, that Vetis was evil. He was too kind, too thoughtful, and he had done nothing but good to her. How could she ever think he was evil? "I don't care that you're Fallen. I'm Fallen too," she replied, her logic following a moment later. "Angels who choose free will, they're the Fallen, right? Well it's that sort of like a Mermaid wanting to be human? And I'm not bad just because I want to be a human, just like all humans aren't bad, even if some of them are. So I believe you and I trust you."

Trust was implicit when it came to Ariel. He would have to blatantly and outrageously break her trust for her to not forgive him of any transgressions he might do against her. That was just the kind of person she was, her innocence showing in spades. He insisted she invoke his name to protect herself because he wasn't very good at resisting temptation, but she didn't care. She didn't want to make him bound by anything and she very nearly stopped him from finishing his oath, but it seemed important to him at least. Unfortunately for him, Ariel was the sort of person who would give anything freely to someone who did her kindness. She blushed at the way he said she was really tempting, because she didn't understand why

"Why I am so tempting to you, Vetis? Why did you have to give me your word, invoke your name, that you wouldn't cheat me? I want to trust you. I do trust you. Why can't you trust yourself?" Ariel was honestly curious because she didn't think there was anything about her that was tempting. Sure, she knew she would need to be wed some day, have merbabies and continue on the royal line, but the desires that came along with that duty had yet to truly surface. All she knew was that Vetis had done nothing but give, give, give, and she had taken his name accidentally. How could one song - amazing as it had been - compare to how much he had given her?

There was a lot of difference between wanting to be a mermaid and wanting to be a human than falling out of Grace to become damned, but Vetis would have taken a shower in holy water before he would have told Ariel that. She was pure to the point that he wanted to do nothing more than watch her for a century or two. It was the first time that he'd met someone that pure and hadn't been overwhelmed with the desire to cover them up in sin until all that pure white light shining out of them was gone, snuffed out by the sin of Corruption.

"I am---" Vetis hesitated as he tried to come up with a way to explain what he was without painting himself in a bad light, but she needed to know that she had to protect herself, "---really evil."

It sounded absolutely lame to say it that way. Vetis nearly felt as young as he looked saying that out loud. He had kept up with the language of the times only because there was no better way to blend successfully than to rely on language. If he sounded young, no matter how old his eyes appeared, he was taken for a young man. That was the best way to corrupt. Everyone wanted to trust the young though they were usually the most untrustworthy of any age group.

He hesitantly reached up to take a strand of her bright hair between his thumb and forefinger, rubbing it curiously to test its texture. It figured it would be soft. Ariel looked as if she were painfully soft with her curves and her skin tone. She was bright all over. That was impressive since it was hard to be bright all over for any creature. Even Heaven's most beautiful beings still had a darkness to them that was courtesy of the righteous wrath of the Creator. Vetis imagined that her deal with that witch was likely the first time that she had ever defied her father for real or even felt anger at him.

"You know this is the same color as my skin? Real skin. I don't really look like this. It's dangerous for us to come to the surface as ourselves so we come up here in vessels. A body that makes us look like something else. I look like a young man because it's easier. People don't pay as much attention to me and the ones that do? They're after exactly what I want. Every one of the numbered Fallen have a sin that is closest to themselves. It's how we draw strength, how we eat, how we survive. Mine is Corruption. I'm the patron of that which means that I'm the top of the food chain there. I can't trust myself because I like how it feels to share what I am with someone who thinks themselves above me. Greater than me. You're a lot, a lot greater than me, Ariel. You're so pure it almost hurts to look at you."

Vetis dropped his hand back into his lap with a grin, "Believe me, if you knew the things that I've been thinking, you wouldn't trust me either."

Ariel looked at him full of disbelief when he said that he was really evil. "I don't understand," she started, but he reached for a strand of her hair and she stilled, her breath caught in her throat as she tried not to move. She wasn't afraid of him, that wasn't why she stilled. She stopped moving because he was touching her, rubbing her hair as if he'd never quite felt anything like it before. Ariel didn't want to cause him to pull away because she liked the way he was looking at her, how interested he seemed to be. It made her feel warm in a way she'd never felt before and she liked it.

She listened as he talked about his skin and the Fallen, and she tried to understand as best she could. He survived on corrupting the good? "I don't want to be greater than you, though. I don't even understand how I could be, because you're so much more than I am. You know so much more, you've seen so much more. I could listen to you talk for hours upon hours. I want to get to know you. I don't care what you look like. You're incredibly handsome like this, but I don't care if your skin is red or if you looked different. I'm not scared of you, Vetis. I don't know why you don't want me to like you. I just don't understand." She looked pleadingly at him, as if begging him to understand.

"I don't care what you're thinking. I don't think I understand what corruption means, or how you could corrupt someone, but I do know that I want to be your friend. I want to sing for you, explore the ship with you, and hear more about your life. I want you to teach me how to be human. You've already shown me how to sit properly. I know that you're not human, I understand that, but you've spent a lot of time being human, haven't you?" He just had to help her. "I'm alone here. My father, my sisters, even my friends, they aren't here. I still trust you, even after everything you've said. How could I not trust you, when you've been so sweet and generous? Please, please, just let me trust you. Please be my friend?"

That was all she wanted, to be able to leave his room knowing that she could always turn to him with her questions. Ariel didn't want to be alone. That was all she cared about. She wasn't even thinking about the fact that he hadn't made her appearance situation permanent yet. In fact, she'd trade that just to be friends with him. She didn't understand the need she felt, the desire. She only knew she wanted to keep him close by.

What in blessed Hell was wrong with him? Vetis had never tried to convince an innocent not to deal with him. His entire life depended on continuing to spread Corruption. Sure, Ariel was the most pure soul he'd met in too many years to count, but shouldn't he be trying to make sure that he kept her instead of trying to drive her away? He was losing his mind. That was what was going on in this place. It was driving him crazy. That just figured, too, since his sister had tried for years to accomplish that task without any success.

He shook his head at her. There really wasn't a lot that he could do to dissuade her from becoming attached to him without corrupting her. It wouldn't necessarily hurt her to spend time with him. Vetis could tell good stories. Heaven held some good memories for him and he didn't experience any pain talking about the place or the things that he'd done there before falling. Over the course of his years walking the earth, Vetis had even done some good things for the mortals that he preyed upon. He could share those with Ariel.

"Okay," he decided suddenly as if he had to agree right then or the offer would go away or he'd change his mind, "I'll be your friend. We can talk. I can tell you anything you want to know about humans. I was Created in the second wave, before Man, so I remember when they began. About the only thing I don't know about humans is why they're so stupid sometimes. I mean, really, you should see some of the things they'll agree to in a deal. I---should talk about something else."

Vetis gave her a wide grin as he realized that he was proving himself to be honest there. He really had never been very good at resisting temptation. That was probably due in part to associating constantly with Impatience. Verrine was his closest sibling and his best friend. Their association often led to some fairly unpleasant encounters for everyone around them though they always had fun. Verrine was more fun than any of his other siblings because they never judged his preferences or his motivations.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to keep from giving in to her appeal if he kept her in his room much longer so he stood abruptly, offering her his hand to help her up, "Here, I'll show you around. I've prowled the place pretty thoroughly. They have a lot of pools though I don't think any of them are saltwater. Does that matter to you? Can you breathe in freshwater? I could definitely do something about that if you can't. I think. I know I could call in a favor to help with it if I can't. That's how we do things. Favors. No one likes to owe anyone else where I'm from since you never know how they'll want to be paid back, right?"

The demon never lost his smile though he definitely didn't want to open that line of conversation with Ariel. She might think that he wanted to call in a favor with her if he did.

She was afraid, for a moment, that he would continue to push her away. He agreed so suddenly to be her friend though, and she smiled so widely, her father might've joked that she resembled a shark with how her teeth were showing. Ariel couldn't help throwing her arms around him, giving him a big, tight hug. He'd agreed to be her friend! She was on cloud nine, pulling away from the embrace with a bubbly smile still on her lips. She wasn't afraid of being on the ship anymore, not in the least. Vetis would be her friend, he would teach her and tell her all kinds of things.

"We can talk about whatever you'd like to talk about," Ariel agreed, because she figured she could learn just about anything from Vetis and even if she couldn't learn anything, at least she'd be getting to know him. He could lie to her about everything, but she didn't think he would. No, he liked how pure she was, that much she understood. Ariel promised herself that she would continue to be as appealing as possible to him, desperate as she was for his company.

He stood up just as suddenly as he'd agreed to be her friend, but Ariel didn't mind. She only looked up at him in surprise, and then at the hand he offered, before taking it to help her up. "It doesn't matter if the water is freshwater or saltwater," she replied. "My father is King of Atlantis, ruler of all the oceans. Our family, we can travel through all types of water and still survive. It's said that we're descended from the God who watches over the oceans, and that's why my sisters and I have that same ability. Not all merpeople can survive in both types of water, of course. Only some. I wish I could take you to see Atlantis. It's so beautiful there, and the palace has stood for centuries unchanged."

Ariel also wished she could show Vetis her collection of human things, but her father had destroyed her grotto quite thoroughly. "I would appreciate if you could tell me about some of the things in the different rooms," she offered curiously, hooking her arm in his. "And how do humans prepare their food? Do you know if someone will feed us?" Her stomach growled at the thought of food and Ariel flushed bright red, unsure of what sound she'd just made. "What did I do?" she whispered, looking up, embarrassed, at Vetis.

Sex was the first thing that came to mind for Vetis when Ariel said she'd talk about anything he wanted to talk about, but he wasn't ready to take away that much of her innocence all at once. He had no idea how long they'd be stuck on the ship together. Why would he want to ruin all at once what he'd only found? There was plenty of other things that could be fascinating to someone as sheltered as she appeared to be that he could come up with to discuss. He idly wondered if she had ever traveled before becoming human.

"Have you traveled much then? Since your family could migrate out of Atlantis, I'd think you would be the kind to want to see as much of the world as possible. You seem adventurous that way," Vetis offered with an attempt at flattery to her which made him feel a touch more himself.

He had spent years corrupting the most innocent of all souls. They had flocked to his youthful appearance and shy smiles; few of them had even realized they were being toyed with until it was too late. It wasn't as if he had any reason to lie to them, did he? He was so very young.

That ploy alone had sustained him for longer than he cared to think about. Vetis had tried playing an older woman since Verrine had talked him into it, but that had turned into a nightmare. He'd wound up having to kill his oldest son for pissing his sister off. The loss of the boy didn't bother him as much as the fact that Verrine hadn't spoken to him for two centuries after the fact. Impatience wasn't appeased by simple bloodshed. She'd wanted him to suffer for her frustration and Vetis had felt that pain every day of those centuries because he knew that the waiting alone had to be eating Verrine up inside.

Impatience couldn't wait for anything, but she'd waited to torment him. It oddly made him smile wider in memory.

"I could see Atlantis with you. We could do that if we ever get off this boat.  You could introduce me to your favorite sister. Do you have a favorite? I definitely have a favorite sister. I've got a lot of siblings, but my closest is a sister. She's the light of my life and I couldn't imagine losing her. When I fell from Grace, I was afraid she wouldn't fall, too, but I should have known better. She was already there waiting on me when I touched down, tapping her foot at me for keeping her waiting. She does that a lot. Taps her foot. I think it's cute. Other people want to break her legs for it. No one touches her though. I'm not a prince as I told you, but a lot of people owe me favors. No one touches my sister."

Vetis laughed as he patted her hand where it rested on his arm. They were making good time moving through the halls. It was nice to spend time with someone as young as Ariel since he didn't have to change his pace for her. He thought she would like Verrine even though he wasn't sure how his sister would appreciate the mermaid's innocence. Vetis seemed unique in his appreciation of the innocent. Most of Hell was content to corrupt whoever they could sink their claws into. Vetis was too discriminating for that.

"I'll tell you about anything you want. You're probably going to want me to tell you about how to work an oven first though since that sound? It's your stomach saying you're hungry. I guess you haven't eaten since becoming human? You'll have to tell me what you like to eat. Here, close your eyes, I'll show you a neat trick."

All demons could teleport. That was an easy magic. Vetis didn't wait to see if Ariel had obeyed before flashing them to the kitchen. It was gloriously unoccupied though it looked as if someone had been cooking up a storm in it already. He didn't pause in his stride as he kept walking her right up to the stove to point out the various cooking options the ship offered.

"We've got a stove here which we can bake in, the burners on top let you grill or cook in a pan or boil things, over there's a microwave which cooks with electricity, and they've got a toaster and I'm pretty sure that's a toaster oven so we could do that too. There are also things that don't need cooking which are probably in the refrigerator which is the big thing there with the wide doors. It keeps food cold. Do you have any favorites? I guess you don't eat seafood, huh?"

"I've only been out to explore a little bit. I'm the youngest of my sisters and it's just us. It has been since I was five, when my mom died. We used to travel as a family together, sometimes when Daddy had business or other times just for fun, but that stopped after the accident," Ariel replied, not knowing or caring that she was beginning to repeat herself a bit. She didn't find a need to hold anything back from Vetis, not even her tendency to over share. "Even so, I don't mind. There's plenty of ocean to explore near Atlantis and there's almost always a new shipwreck to find whenever I go looking. Flounder comes with me all the time, even though he's a bit of a baby sometimes. He gets so scared, but I think that's because we've faced a lot of sharks and he never really likes it when Daddy gets angry."

When he agreed to see Atlantis with her, Ariel beamed. "I don't have a favorite sister. They're all much more obedient than I am and they never wonder what's beyond Atlantis. It's annoying sometimes, and because I'm the youngest, they baby me. I just don't want to be stuck in one place all the time. I like to explore and swim and I love going up to the surface. There's nothing like feeling the sun on your skin. Once, I was on the surface too long and my skin got angry and turned bright red. It hurt for days and Daddy got so mad about it. I was ground for a month!" She still felt the injustice of it all, even years later.

When he talked about his sister and her tendency to tap her foot, Ariel thought it sounded like fun! She wanted to stop to try tapping her own foot, but they were walking and Vetis was laughing, and she didn't want to disrupt their happy walk. "I'm hungry?" Ariel considered the feeling again and agreed that she was hungry. "Why do I make that noise when I'm hungry?" She hadn't ever experienced such a thing as a mermaid. He told her to close her eyes and she did, even though she was confused as to why he was telling her to do so. She opened them when he continued walking her forward and jumped slightly, clutching Vetis' arm tightly.

"How did you do that?" she asked, realizing they were now in the room that had been marked 'Kitchen'. It seemed like he knew his way around all the appliances, for which Ariel was grateful. "All of our food comes from the sea," she replied, when he said she didn't eat seafood. "We grown our own plants and herbs, which are quite tasty. We never cook with anything hot so I think I might like things from the refrigerator," she replied, coming to the conclusion that cold food was food she would be able to eat. "What is it that you like to eat best?" she asked, wondering if maybe they liked some of the same things.

It seemed odd to imagine that sharks would attack a mermaid. That seemed almost unnatural to Vetis in a way that he couldn't wholly define. All he could think was it was stranger to him than imagining reasons why a lion would take down a gazelle since lions were the top of their food chain and gazelles were merely a dumber animal; mermaids had souls which should have placed them above animals. He definitely didn't like the idea that Ariel could have become shark bait before he had gotten a chance to meet her. That was unpleasant.

"I imagine there's not any way to heat things below the water without magic," Vetis agreed, "Magic is a part of me. It's something older than Man which means it was Created with the first beings and I'm of that kind even though I wasn't Created in the First Wave. When humans or other beings can move through space and time with their mind, they tend to call it 'teleportation' and they can do it because they're out of sync with the world for some reason. I can do it because I'm beyond this world. I wasn't made for it so it's laws can't contain me. If I weren't damned, I could take myself from here to Heaven without more than a second or two passing. As it is, I can only take myself home and that's not Heaven anymore that's for sure."

He laughed as he started to pull things from the fridge to make a salad. Ariel said they used a lot of herbs which made him think that she could appreciate a citrus salad. Tropical fruit had always been a favorite of the demon's since he tended to love anything that came from a warmer climate. There was a refreshing quality to its taste that didn't come from colder places where all their foods seemed bitter or too hot. He was a fan of the cold. It reminded him of being close to the innermost circle of Hell where Lucifer lived with his children in their great ice palaces. That was his favorite place to visit in Hell.

Looking at her as he lay out a selection of butter lettuces and some parsley, a bit of cilantro, a small lime, and a few other vegetables that he thought would give it a nice crunch, Vetis offered, "I can imagine that you're too kind to ever pick a favorite among your family. That's probably why you never got closer to one sister than another. Me? I think we make our own fairness. I think you'll like a salad though and it's one of my favorite foods. I like cold foods too so you're in luck. I prefer tropical foods. They're sweeter. Juicier. More exotic. I just like them better since I like the cold better. You really never got hungry before in the water? I would think you'd have to eat a lot just because you had to use your body so much to get around."

"Daddy's trident has magic. He doesn't use it very often. Sometimes he uses it to light the chandelier in the theater when there's a performance of some kind. We, my sisters and I, I mean, we perform every year. Sebastian, he's my dad's adviser and also the court composer, he wrote a song for my sisters and I to perform for my sixteenth birthday. It's become a tradition of sorts, for the person who's turning sixteen as a debut into adult society. I missed mine though. Flounder and I found a shipwreck that I just had to explore," Ariel said, finding it incredibly easy to just talk to Vetis. She enjoyed talking to someone who didn't know anything about her. More importantly though, she wanted him to know everything about her.

She leaned against the counter where he could prepare whatever he wanted to for them to eat. "So, Heaven is where I go when I die, right? If I'm good? I'm not afraid of dying, but I don't want to die too soon. I'm just looking forward to a new place to explore. Atlantis is big, and so is the ocean, but Heaven is forever, isn't it? So it must be very, very big." It was all too obvious how excited she was to explore a new place, and that was part of the reason why she was so excited to be on the ship, not to mention the fact that she had her legs. She was a very happy mermaid indeed. "Are there a lot of people in Heaven? Do you miss it?" She glanced around the kitchen and realized they were technically in a public place, so she lowered her voice and leaned in closely to ask, "Can we talk about Heaven when we're out in a common area like this? Or is that a secret too?" She didn't want to say anything she wasn't supposed to.

"Well, they're kind of boring, honestly," Ariel replied, returning the conversation to her sisters. "They never want to explore anywhere with me and they would've told on me about my collection. Daddy hates all the human things. I told you that, didn't I? I had a whole grotto full of things that I'd found exploring. I found a girl standing up on one leg, with one leg sticking out, and she'd spin when I pushed the leg. She looked really pretty and then she was standing on top of a secret box. That was one of my favorite things, but then after I saved Prince Eric from his ship, Flounder surprised me because the statue Grimsy? I think that was his name. Anyway, Grimsy made the prince a statue of him, the prince I mean, and it floated into my grotto. Daddy destroyed everything with his trident though, when he found out that I'm in love with Eric. That was why I went to Ursula, to get my legs." She was a little nervous, only a little, that she might not be able to keep her legs after two more days, but she'd enjoy them while she could.

"Your salad sounds delicious. I've gotten hungry before, sure, but my stomach's never made that kind of noise before. Whenever I got hungry, I could just go to the garden and pick something to eat. The gardener didn't always appreciate it, but she never outright banned me from getting food whenever I wanted. Plus, I always brought her very small knicknacks. She liked those." Ariel smiled, watching him make the salad. "Don't you use your body to get around all the time? Well, maybe not you, because you can blink to other rooms, but normal humans? Don't they have to walk everywhere?" How else could they possibly do it? Not everyone could blink everywhere, could they?

She asked so many questions. They were all as sweet as the mandarin oranges that Vetis had found in a cabinet to put in their salad. He had decided to construct it in a large bowl to be served family-style. That way Ariel could take as much as she liked without him having to determine how much he thought she should eat. Females could be surprisingly difficult when it came to their food and not just on what kind of food either. Vetis had learned the hard way that quantity was hard to judge, too. Serve a female too much, she assumed a man thought her too thin; serve her too little, she assumed he thought her too fat. They were impossible to please from what he could tell.

Vetis looked through cabinets to find the ingredients for a Waldorf vinaigrette dressing with walnuts, grapes, lemon juice, honey, a dash of cardamom, Dijon mustard, a hint of cream and the finest extra virgin olive oil he could find in the cabinets. He halved the grapes before tossing them in with the rest of the ingredients though he did leave the walnuts to the side in case Ariel preferred hers without. Carrying the salad bowl with the dressing in its own bowl to the table, he tried to think what he could tell her.

"It's no big deal to talk about Heaven," he decided as he rummaged for utensils and bowls for the salad, "I don't miss the place itself, but I have some family there that I wish I could see again. Heaven is a lot like Hell in terms of space. It's made up of different levels the same way. Where I lived was close to the highest level of Heaven though I didn't spend as much time there as most thought, I was like you maybe? I liked to explore. I traveled a lot. Some parts of Heaven have only one way in or out while others sprawl out forever. There isn't a limit to Heaven in the way that there is to the ocean or to Earth itself. It's---it's where you'll go when you die if you stay good, yeah."

He set out a bowl and a fork for Ariel before putting in tongs to serve the salad with and motioned her to join him at the table, "I figured you could serve yourself. I didn't put nuts in it since I wasn't sure if you would like them. I do, but I wanted you to get to decide yourself. The dressing is in this bowl. You pour it on the salad mix so you get to decide how much you want."

Laughing a little nervously at the fact that he'd just explained how salad worked to her, Vetis sat down as if his legs had collapsed beneath him. He hoped she didn't get offended about that. It was hard to imagine Ariel being offended, but she was a female and he never knew about them. The only one he'd ever had any long-term use for had been his sister and Verrine definitely wasn't a typical female.

"You, uhh, did tell me about that. I'm sorry your dad got rid of your stuff. I know how that is since my father wasn't too happy with me when I fell. I burned the whole way down. My sister thinks that's why my skin looks the way it does. I don't care though since I like my new look. I always hated having white wings. They looked so plain. I think I was one of the few angels to serve a Virtue who wasn't Created entirely virtuous since I was always a little vain. I just didn't know that was what it was called. I guess you could say that humans have to walk on their legs everywhere or crawl, but walking takes less muscle movement than swimming. You use more energy to swim. That's why humans can't swim as far as they can run. I guess you're still getting used to a lot of things with your new body though, huh?"

Ariel liked hearing about Heaven and decided if it was okay to talk about, she wanted to hear everything. It was exciting to think that he'd explored a lot of Heaven already. Maybe he'd be able to give her tips! Though, what she really wanted was to go exploring with him and he couldn't go back to Heaven. That was sad to her, because he seemed so much closer to his family than she was to hers, and he wasn't allowed to go home. Maybe if she was really, really good, the people in Heaven would let him come visit her. Ariel didn't suggest it to him though, not wanting to get his hopes up in case she couldn't get them to let him go home for a little while.

"Will you tell me about some of your favorite places you've traveled? I hope this ship takes us to new and exciting places. Can we explore together? You're not scared like Flounder always is, and I think you know a lot more than Scuttle," she explained, hoping her reasoning made sense. "You would make an excellent exploring friend. I really want to spend more time with you too, so it works out really well, doesn't it?" Ariel was smiling as she watched him gather everything he needed. He set out a dinglehopper next to her bowl and her smile grew, immediately reaching for it and only half listening as he explained about the food they were eating. She didn't mind about that. She liked that he explained things to her.

"I know what this is!" she exclaimed, picking up the fork and brushing her hair with it excitedly. She turned to Vetis, incredibly proud that she'd remembered about the dinglehopper and what it did. "I don't know why it's here, if this is a place for food. Scuttle said it's for doing my hair. He called it a dinglehopper." She finished with a section of her hair and then held the fork out to Vetis, as if to ask if he wanted to try.

"I don't know what any of that means, but I think you would look lovely in red. Are you really as red as my hair? Or a different sort of red?" He could've been rainbow colored and she wouldn't have cared, but she figured he knew that. "I don't know a lot of things about this body, but you've been really helpful. You explain everything, which is nice. This salad mix looks really delicious too. I want to try it with everything." Ariel put the dinglehopper down and used the wooden spoon to push the salad into her own bowl. Then, she took the dressing and positively drowned her salad in it, leaving some for Vetis but not nearly as much as she'd taken for herself. In Atlantis, they ate primarily with their fingers or out of shells so Ariel just picked up a lettuce leaf between her fingers and popped it in her mouth. "Mmmmm, that's delicious! You're a lovely cook! Will you cook again for me? Or show me how to cook? I never really learned at home. There were lessons, but I never remembered to go. I'd go if you showed me how to make this though." She wouldn't want to waste his time, after all.

Before Vetis could stop himself or even realize he was doing it, he was laughing and he couldn't seem to stop. It started with a giggle that continued on to a chuckle to a full-out belly laugh that he couldn't stop. He finally managed to get control of himself as she kept looking at him expectantly after having eaten with her fingers. Vetis supposed that was good since she'd combed her hair with the fork though her hair looked incredibly sleek, clean; how dirty could a mermaid get anyway?

He wiped at his eyes as he said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you. I just realized I have no idea where you get all that energy and I haven't seen anyone so innocent in what feels like an eternity. The, umm, dinglehopper? It's actually called a 'fork' and it's used for eating so that you don't have to eat with your fingers. That's considered rude in many social situations. Most social situations. You're gorgeous, you know that? I could have you for dinner instead of this salad, but I have no idea how I'd ever find anything for dessert if I made a meal out of you."

Sadly enough, Vetis was only half-joking there. He wasn't above cutting his nose off to spite his face at times. It was something he'd cursed himself for in times past when he'd not taken the time to savor an innocent prior to corrupting all that lovely innocence right out of them. His excuse that it was because of association with his sister, Impatience, was only that: an excuse. The fault lay at his feet and he was willing to admit that.

Vetis could learn from his mistakes. He could. This time was going to be different.

"You can eat with your fingers if you'd like to with me though. I don't care at all!" he grinned, dimples showing, "I think you could get away with nearly anything with me. I know you could ask me anything and I'd probably answer you if for no other reason than to hear how you reacted to my answers!"

Giggling again at his luck, Vetis tried to think of how he could answer her without being too overwhelming. He'd been to a lot of places that he'd had fun in for different reasons. The one that stood out the most was probably a bad idea to talk about since the reason Vetis had enjoyed it was because of the sheer number of priests that he'd managed to tempt away from the light there. Ariel had move beyond the question of what his favorite places had been to immediately ask him if he'd explore with her.

That would surely be more interesting than any specific memory of his own.

"I would love to explore with you. From what I can tell, we're stuck on this ship for right now, so we'll have to explore here before we can explore somewhere else, but Eternity is sailing through the water pretty fast. I have to think it's taking us somewhere. If it's going somewhere, that means it's got to eventually stop at a port, right? That's how I see it anyway. I'll be glad to explore with you when it does. There's not a lot that can hurt me so you'd be safe enough with me no matter where we pull ashore."

He hoped anyway. There was the chance they'd land on some stupidly blessed island that was entirely holy ground, but it was only a very slight chance so he didn't think it was worth mentioning.

Dressing his own salad, Vetis cleared his throat as he worked at fixing his food, "I, yeah, I'm really red. My skin. My wings. They're tipped in black. I wanted to get rid of the feathered look so I'm glad that I got to do that though some who fell with me were really, really upset about it when it happened to them. If it makes you feel better, I know all that there is to know about the body you've got right now, but I'd be totally lost if you asked me about mermaid parts. I don't even know how you manage to make baby mermaids! I guess you could say we've both got a lot to learn from each other. I'll teach you cooking and human things. You can tell me about Atlantis. Deal?"

His laughter was probably one of the more melodic sounds she'd ever heard and Ariel wanted nothing more than to make him laugh often and loudly. It never dawned on her that he might be laughing at her because she didn't think she'd done anything wrong. She realized her error when he explained what the dinglehopper really was and how to actually eat the salad he'd provided. She blushed bright red in embarrassment and picked up the fork to examine it again.

"I wonder what else Scuttle got wrong," she murmured, pulling a single strand of red hair from the metal. Suddenly, it dawned on her. "How would you eat me? Do humans often eat each other? I don't know that I would be very tasty. I wonder if I would taste like fish," she mused aloud, tilting her head to the side as she tried to make sense of that. She'd never heard of eating someone before. Merfolk didn't eat each other, so it was a completely foreign concept to her for sentient beings to do such a thing. Fish ate each other of course, but it usually pertained to the food chain and never the same species eating themselves.

"Are you sure you don't mind my eating with fingers? We only eat with fingers or shells in Atlantis," she explained. "I like that you're so very accommodating, Kevin. It makes me feel warm inside, but it a good way," she promised, picking up another lettuce leaf with her fingers to put in her mouth. It was just really delicious and after one bite, Ariel realized she was very, very hungry.

"I would hope so! Though the ship seems big enough to explore for a little while! I want to experience everything I can while we're together! Do you think you'll ever get tired of exploring places? I've never gotten tired of it. I love exploring. I could explore all day and all night, stopping only to sleep when I need to. There's a comfy shell in my room for me to sleep on I think. It's got some kind of cushion on it. I really like it though, since at home I sleep on a curved rock. It's really quite comfortable, with my seaweed blanket and pillow. I'm looking forward to sleeping in it though because it looked so nice. Do you have a bed too? What does yours look like?"

She continued to eat her salad with her fingers, occasionally stopping to lick her fingertips when they got too covered in dressing. It was really very delicious. "Will you show me what you look like red? I would very much like to see you that way, if you're okay with that?" Ariel looked to him hopefully. "There's nothing much interesting about making babies. It depends on the species of merfolk. There's three species, one where the mermaid lays eggs and the merman fertilizes them, another where the mermaid fertilizes the egg and the merman carries the baby, and another - my species - where the merman fertilizes the mermaid and the baby is carried inside the mermaid before she gives birth." Ariel wrinkled her nose. "It's all kind of icky though. I'm too young to have babies so I figured I'd just worry about it when the time came. No sense in borrowing trouble, right? Besides, with a baby, I couldn't explore things!" That would just be the worst thing in the world.

"Atlantis though, Atlantis is beautiful. I wish I could take you to see it. I think you would like it there, just to explore the oceans."

"I'm thinking that Scuttle got a lot wrong," Vetis answered, covering another laugh with a cough, "I only meant that figuratively. Humans typically don't literally eat each other. They do use their mouths on one another though. For pleasure, not for eating."

That was skating close to the line of breaking her innocence, but Vetis couldn't help the clarification. Her skin colored so pretty that he wanted to see if he could keep it that shade a while longer. Red was a good color on her. Ariel was pure enough that she had likely never thought about what made her look her best or cared what people thought of her looks at all. Vetis was willing to bet that she was the prettiest of her sisters even without her confirming that for him.

Ariel was dainty as she picked at her salad; it made sense to him that they wouldn't use flatware underwater. They likely didn't have a need for it since they had a self-cleaning system going all the time. He wondered how they talked to one another. Could they speak underwater or did they communicate telepathically? Some species of underwater animals made sounds such as whales. Sound was possible below water, but how would she breathe? Did she have gills?

Trying to eat his own salad without watching her eating hers, he swallowed a bite, clearing his mouth with a sip of his drink, "I don't mind that you eat with your fingers. Here you'll probably need a napkin to clean your hands with after you're done, but I can find one for you or we can wash your hands in the sink. It's not nearly the rudest thing that I've had to deal with at my dinner table. I once dined with an emperor who---we're going to skip that. Do I have a bed? At home? Yeah. I've got a bed."

Vetis was one of a number of demons who preferred to stay above rather than in Hell since he couldn't very well corrupt souls already damned. He could convince his brethren to perform corrupt acts, but it wasn't very satisfying, sometimes that even felt unsporting considering how easy it was to get the court to turn against one another. His siblings didn't all feel that way, of course, and Vetis would never admit it since it would make him seem a fool or weak, but that was why he didn't stay below when he could stay above.

He did have a home below though that he shared often enough with his sister, Verrine, though she had her own home too. His home was near Lucifer's Grand Palace in the innermost circle of Hell and he could see the palace Lucifer's children shared beyond it. Verrine lived in a house that resembled a work of modern art. There was a lot about the modernist movement that he appreciated and he'd always loved simple, minimalistic designs. He wondered if Ariel would hate his home or love it.

"My tastes have always run a little minimalistic. I like modern art. Clean lines. Simple things. My bed is a perfect circle and it is held up by a pedestal

which allows it to rotate. The bed itself is black, but I have linens in red or white too and the pedestal is clear crystal. It spins thanks to magic. I have a sister who doesn't like things that stay the same and I have to say that I like the way it feels to be in motion when I'm laying down."

His mind was a little scrambled by the thought that there were mermen who had their young and then Ariel went on to say she was too young to have children which threw a whole other spin on things. Was she a child for their kind? Vetis had never particularly cared for children though he'd played one more than once to spread Corruption.

"I never get tired of exploring," Vetis decided, fork held aloft as he paused mid-motion to ask, "Are you still a child then? For your kind? Are you not physically mature?"

"Hmm, well will you tell me about everything so that I can tell Scuttle when I see him again? Daddy hates when I go to the surface but I want to know what all the things are in my collection. Scuttle was the only one who could tell me," she explained, before focusing on what humans did with their mouths. "Do you mean kissing? Because merpeople do that too. That's nice. I like kissing because it makes me happy. Daddy's always happy after I kiss him and sometimes my sisters are more likely to forgive me if I kiss them. Daddy's kisses are ticklish though because of his beard. He has a long white beard with a mustache and everything!" She meant kissing on the cheek, as that was the only kissing she was familiar with, so she didn't see a need to clarify.

Her eyes widened when he said that he'd dined with an emperor. "You must be very important if you've dined with an emperor! What was he like? Was he very rude? Some times my father deals with rude people, but because he's the king of all the ocean, they're less rude to Daddy. I always have to remember to be quiet when they're around. No talking about humans or shipwrecks or the surface, and no kisses. Daddy doesn't even let me call him Daddy then! It's always Father," she explained, grumbling just at the thought of it. "Yes, what's your home like?"

She was so intrigued by the idea of a rotating bed that she lost all interest in her salad in favor of hearing more about his home. "It moves? That is so cool! How did you get it to do that? You must be very powerful to keep it spinning even when you're sleeping. Are you and your sister very close? How many siblings do you have? Is your sister your favorite?"

She was ways so full of questions. Ariel just wanted to know and she wanted to discover everything as she explored new places and met new people. She'd found interest again for her salad and had a few more pieces before she replied to Vetis' question about her being a child. "No, I'm eighteen. I can be wed and have babies technically but none of my other sisters are married or have babies. I don't want to have a baby until I have to because then I can't explore as much. I've always wanted a husband who loved exploring as much as I did. That's why I love Prince Eric, because he has a whole kingdom to explore and be likes to sail so I can still be by the ocean. I love the ocean. I'm glad I can still see the ocean and smell it on the air. It feels like home, even though it isn't. I am a little homesick, I guess. I didn't think I would be." She pursed her lips together as she pondered how she was feeling. "Are you homesick?"

Laughing at Ariel was rude. Vetis had to keep telling himself that though his face was flushed from trying to hold it back as she gushed on about things that sounded absolutely wrong. If he hadn't known what she meant, he'd have thought she was a bubbly -yet thoroughly Corrupt- hellspawn of some kind. She was charming. He wondered what it said about him that he could be happy listening to her talk for hours, basking in that light of hers without even touching her. Was he getting soft?

Nope, he decided as she started talking about kissing her sisters, definitely not soft.

"Umm," he gave an awkward laugh as he allowed, "I kiss my sister too. Just the one sister though. I haven't ever really liked my own kind very much. They don't---I don't fit in very well in that way. I need different things."

That sounded okay enough. Ariel talked about humans as if she knew exactly what it was to want something different than her own kind. She had been looking for a prince to kiss when he'd met her and she was trying to stay something else. It gave him hope that she wouldn't need more of an explanation than that. Vetis really didn't want to talk about kissing his sister with her since he had a feeling that she wasn't doing the same kind of kissing with her sisters that he did with his own.

It occurred to him suddenly that he really hoped his sister liked Ariel. He'd never felt that way about potential prey before. They'd always been a food source or a way to pass the time throughout eternity; usually when he was done corrupting them, Vetis forgot about them completely as he rarely found himself content in Hell and his prey were never as much fun to revisit when they were already damned. They couldn't feed him then and he had no way of being able to enjoy them if they couldn't meet his needs. That they could be more than a meal had never been something he'd considered and Vetis had definitely never thought about introducing his prey to his sister unless he thought they could have more fun tempting someone together or the person proved to be enough of a meal to share.

Putting his fork down, he wiped his mouth with his napkin before trying to respond in a way she'd understand, "I have a lot of sisters and brothers. We were all Created by our father and we're family, but I'm not really close with anyone except the one sister. I love her. Really. Most people think that I'm joking about that since she's a lot to deal with but I'm not at all. She's like---like my favorite person in the world."

Vetis laughed at that because it was true. There was never a dull moment with Verrine. He liked her demanding. He liked it when she was bitchy. Verrine was even endearing to him when she was being vicious or whining or picking at him. She made him feel necessary in a way that the rest of their kin didn't.

"I'm not very high up on the importance scale, but my sister and I do get invited to the Grand Palace to visit the emperor when he really needs us. We have our uses and we're both fairly powerful. The moving bed is a neat trick more than anything else. It doesn't take a lot of power to do something like that.  Our emperor is a very self-involved guy. He's not into most of us. I don't take it personally. Home, for me, isn't ever really far away. Sometimes I miss it, but then I just go back. Usually I only go back to see family or to get something I need. I'm like you there maybe? I like to explore too much to be happy settling in one spot. I'm also not a big fan of having babies. I like doing the things that make them, but actually having them? Not so much. I like feeling young even though I'm not. I have to admit I'm really glad that you're not a kid. That's never been my style. I'm Corruption, but even I have standards."

Grinning at Ariel, he offered, "If we ever get out of this boat, I take you to explore my kingdom. I think you'd get a kick out of my home. It's close to the Grand Palace and I can see the palace where the Prince and Princess live. They're the emperor's only children so they're special."

Ariel looked as confused as she felt when she saw his face flush. "Are you okay? Your face is doing that thing that mine does when you make me feel all warm inside," she asked, worried for her new found friend. Already, she thought he was very important to her and she didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. 

"I understand about not fitting in. I'm glad you had your sister at least, and that she liked kissing. It's hard, not being able to give hugs and kisses to the people you love. Some merfolk think it's odd, the way I act. I don't like the way they look at me, like it isn't natural. I can't help being the way I am though. I just want to explore everything and I like being able to kiss the people that I love." She'd never shared that with anyone, even though her sisters all knew that she was a bit of an outcast. It was why she spent so much time trying to get to the surface. Surely they could understand her better than her family could.

"Oh, I see. Like I said, I'm glad you have her. I can tell she's very important to you. Is she here? Do you know? I'd hate for you to have to be without your most favorite person in the world," Ariel offered, because the sentiment was true. She would have hated to be parted from her most favorite person in all the world, but she didn't really have a favorite. That was, in part, because she was so flighty in her passions, but if Vetis stuck around for awhile, she had no doubt he would become a favorite of hers.

He spoke of doing the thing that makes babies, but she just ignored that because she didn't want anything to do with making babies. Merfolk had their version of sex education but Ariel had always managed to avoid it. Why would she ever need to know about it if she didn't want to have babies, ever? She'd always been conveniently absent during those lessons.

"Settling down isn't any fun. How can anyone be content to stay in one place for ever?" It was entirely unfathomable to her. "What do you mean, you're corruption? I'm not familiar with the word. I'm glad we're not kids either. No one ever takes you seriously when you're a kid. It's not fair, and there are all those rules. I never get to have any fun when there are rules."

Talk of palaces and a real Prince and Princess made her entire face light up. "You know a Prince and a Princess, too? I guess it's a good thing that I'm a princess. Would you like me if I wasn't a princess?" There was some vulnerability there, only because she wanted to be important to him. Was she a princess when she wasn't at home?

"No, no," Vetis said quickly, trying to swallow the food in his mouth as his face heated a little more, "I'm fine. I'm not really uncomfortable. I just got to thinking about---stuff. My sister. How long it's been since I last saw her. What we were doing. That kind of thing. Yeah."

There hadn't been too many long stretches of time in their lives where Vetis and Verrine had been apart. He thought about when the last time he had seen her had been and realized it'd at least been a few weeks. That was a pretty long time for them. They tended to check in frequently for no other reason than to brag about their conquests or console one another about the ones that got away. All demons exaggerated about the number of souls they could claim with the sole exceptions being Valefor -who never talked about anything specific, ever, paranoid bastard- and Paimon who never lied and had no reason to plump his numbers when they were already the best out of everyone's in Hell. 

He offered, "I will say I don't think she's here. I would be able to feel her if she were. We have a pretty tight connection. It's been a few weeks since we last got together. I was working on a thing and she had her own thing so time slipped away. It happens every now and again. Not too often for us, but yeah, sometimes."

Vetis felt as if he were talking nonsense to her, but he figured he couldn't be blamed for it since Ariel was over there eating with her fingers and talking about how she liked kissing her family. That was enough to throw most guys for a loop. Who hadn't had a fantasy about hot sisters kissing? Hot mermaid sisters? Vetis figured it was a good thing Ariel wasn't like his kind or else all ocean life might have died at once from being boiled by how hot that would have to get.

It took everything he had in him not to tell her that rules were made to be broken. Vetis managed to refrain by realizing that Ariel would want to know what he meant by that. She was already asking him about his nature without realizing it. That was something he could explain pretty easily though. He'd been fielding questions about Corruption from the innocent since his fall.

"You know how sometimes you can't have the fun you want without going around the rules? Well, that's what I do. I show people what kind of fun they can have if they just learn to look at the rules differently. Or, you know, not at all. That's the basics of what I do as Corruption. It's a little more complicated, but it doesn't really matter. I'm lucky enough that I never get hungry since there's plenty of people who like what I have to offer without me even saying hello."

That was safe to laugh at he figured though it came out as more of a giggle than a laugh. Sometimes there were downsides to being in a vessel as young as his was at present.

Trying to answer the question Ariel posed about her status was harder, Vetis tried to explain the best way he knew how without giving too much away, "I don't care that you're royal. I'm barely a member of the court and they really don't like having me around for the most part.  Status is important, but it isn't what I look for in a---friend. I like you because of your personality and because of how I feel when I'm with you. I don't care that you're a princess. Honest."

She listened to him talking about his sister, smiling pleasantly as she thought she understood how close he was with his sister. At least he had someone. She'd often felt as though she didn't have anyone that she could really relate to because no other mermaid or merman ever aspired to be more or to go to the surface. It was just sad and lonely most of the time, so despite the precarious situation regarding the permanency of her species, Ariel was grateful that she'd appeared on this ship because it brought her Vetis and a new place to explore. She wanted to meet new people too, but that would come later, she was certain of that much. She really just wanted to enjoy being with Vetis because he made her happy, happier than she'd ever been just exploring shipwrecks in secret at home. 

She didn't quite think he was talking nonsense, she just thought he was trying to be vague and that was okay with her because there were definitely some things that she didn't want to talk about or go into much detail about. She was more curious about what he meant about being corruption, so Ariel focused more on his answer about that than anything else.

"I want to have fun without the rules. Will you show me how to look at the rules differently? I mean, I know there aren't as many rules now that we're here because all of this is technically breaking the rules that Daddy set for me, but since it's not my fault I'm here, I can't get in trouble for breaking that rule. I don't know all of the rules about humans though, so I guess you could teach me the rules first and then how to look at them differently?"

Ariel was giving Vetis a lot of trust because she liked him as much as she did and he hadn't steered her wrong yet. He'd be able to tell her all of the necessary rules and then he'd help her break them so that they could have all kinds of fun! She was excited about that. "You're really, really sure that it doesn't matter? I mean, I am a Princess, so it doesn't really matter either way, but I'm glad that it doesn't matter to you because I'd like you no matter what you were and I'm happy that you feel the same way about me." She popped the last leafy green into her mouth and licked her fingers clean before reaching out to bop him on the nose.

"Are you done? Can we go explore now? My fingers are mostly clean, promise. Licking works really well," she said, because she remembered his offer to help her clean her fingers once she was done eating.

There was a constant curiosity coming from Ariel that made Vetis laugh again because he couldn't help it. He worked on finishing his salad as he tried to determine how he could explain himself better or if he'd simply take her up on her offer. Would it count as Corruption if his victim was completely unaware they were being Corrupted? All his prey had realized that they were being led astray; they'd simply chosen not to care which was what made their choice matter and what kept Vetis at full power.

What kind of rules could he teach her? If he taught her rules that weren't real, would breaking those imaginary rules feed him the same as breaking a real rule? Ariel would have to choose to break the rules. She'd have to know that it was wrong and choose to do it anyway. That was Corrupt behavior. It was the definition of what he was at his core. The point of his sin wasn't what one was doing. It was that what one was doing was wrong and they chose to do it anyway. His sin was all about making a bad choice for a selfish reason.

That was the hardest thing to gauge, Vetis decided: could Ariel be selfish? She'd broken her father's rules at home for the sake of her own curiosity. She had put her life in danger in spite of his warnings in order to explore. There was a need for knowledge in her that he could understand himself on a basic level. It could be that she could be selfish under the right circumstances. She could definitely be impatient and young.

Laying his fork down as he finished, Vetis wiped his mouth before saying, "I think I can teach you the rules. There's a lot of rules, really, but some of them only apply to particular places like the ones your father gave you about not going too far to explore and some of them only apply to specific types of people such as people of a particular religion or faith. We can start with the basic rules that are the most common for humans since that's what you really want to be, right? Human? I can teach you those and you can decide which ones sound the most boring to you."

Vetis got up from the table to gather their dishes together before taking them over to the sink. He didn't bother to do them. The ship probably had staff to do that or someone else would take care of it. Doing dishes was very far beneath him. It wasn't something that Vetis had ever been willing to do at home or while stationed above.

"I figure we can walk and talk. I mean, you'll have to stop talking about licking your fingers clean so I don't trip over my feet, but I can manage to talk about the rules while we explore. C'mon, Ariel, let's see what Eternity has in store for us."

He was certain that whatever it was? It was worth him being aboard the ship.

She'd made him laugh again! That was fun and it made her smile wide, since she'd done something pleasing to him. For some reason, that made Ariel feel pretty good. Confidence had never been a problem for her but being on unfamiliar ground with this whole human thing was just a little crack that being with Vetis smoothed over. She licked her fingers once more, just to really make sure that they were clean, while he wiped his mouth.

"Why are rules so specific and varied?" Ariel asked, curious about everything. "Are there multiple faiths here? We pray to the God of the Seas and we invoke his name for blessings, but otherwise merfolk either follow that tradition or they don't. It's said that my family line is descended from his, and the Kingdom gets handed down from father to son. My father has only had daughters though, so I'm not sure what will happen when he's ready to pass the throne on. That's my oldest sister's problem though, not mine. That's the best thing about being the youngest." She didn't have any responsibilities to the throne because of that.

"I most want to be human, so I like that plan very much," she added, answering his question now that she'd gotten around to it. "I don't like boring rules, or rules that don't let me do the things I want. Daddy's rules were always about all the things I couldn't do even though I wanted to do them, and it wasn't like I was hurting anyone!" That was the biggest problem she had with certain rules. Ariel got up from the table to follow him out of the kitchen.

She slid her arm in his. "I don't have to talk about licking my fingers, or any kind of licking. If I ever do anything that bothers you, just tell me so okay? I don't want to be a bother for you because I like spending time with you. I think I said that a lot though, don't I? Is that okay? Should I not tell you that I like you?" Ariel didn't know what was appropriate and what wasn't for humans or for Vetis. She was eager about exploring the ship though, especially with someone who could tell her what everything was.

"Rules make people feel safe," Vetis decided to tell her as they were getting prepared to head out to the rest of the ship, "There are so many of them and they're so different because people come from different cultures and those different cultures have different ideas about what is safe. Some people are raised to believe that being without clothes is dangerous so they cover as much of their body as possible no matter what kind of weather they live in while other people live in a culture that is told that wearing clothing is a sign of shame or weakness so they wear as little as possible no matter what. Things like that make rules different everywhere."

Faith was harder to explain. There were thousands of faiths in the world which Ariel was unlikely to have even heard of much less learned about herself. If her teachings from her friends were anything to go by, Vetis had a feeling that she'd never been exposed to much outside of her own court. She had traveled to different waters, but wasn't all water the same if one was swimming with the same school of fish? One was certainly being taught the same if that was the case. Her people had kept her innocent to the point at which being around her was intoxicating for him. He'd never felt as strong as he did when he was with her and that was hard to think about while trying not to hate her family for leaving her vulnerable to a creature like him in the first place by not educating her properly.

If she'd known about demons, they wouldn't even be talking because Ariel would have known better than to have made arrangements to come see him in the first place. He should be counting his blessings instead of thinking about how irresponsible her family had been in keeping her sheltered. There was also the possibility that her own father didn't know enough about the human world to teach her anything of value. Merpeople were cut off from most of the world simply because their kingdom was completely hidden from other species and inaccessible to most as few beings could live that far below the surface of the water for long enough to reach it.

Patting her hand where it rested on his arm, Vetis led her out into the ship, saying idly, "I think there are many faiths here. I come from the world where the main faith is the one that follows the Creator who was my parent. Most faiths believe in one main god instead of many though there are those who still worship many gods. There are many gods in my world as well though they were all Created through the faith of Man. Man believed in them enough that they came into existence with all the powers Man imagined for them. They're not nearly as old as my kind since my kind existed before Man was even a thought in the Creator's mind. I don't think much of them myself. Some are interesting. I guess. I like mortals better."

Gods couldn't feed his need to Corrupt. Vetis would starve to death if he kept company only with gods. Ariel didn't need to know that though.

"I think it's okay if you tell me you like me. No licking discussions though. That's---that makes me uncomfortable. There, see, I told you something that made me uncomfortable. We'll be honest with each other, Ariel. We're going to be very good friends. This way is the stairs, we'll go up here first and check out the top deck. Might as well, right? We'll explore from the top down. That's how I like to work, too. This is going to be a really great adventure. I'm sure."

  
He was determined to make it a really great adventure, too. For both of them.


	3. Karaoke Night

Ariel had been very excited to get the invitation from Rachel to sing karaoke. She didn't really understand it, not fully, but it was singing and that was always fun! She found some pale blue paper in her room and a pen, so she wrote a short note to Vetis and slipped it under his door.

_Come hear me sing! Rachel has karaoke and she says there's a bar that's stocked, but I'm not sure what its stocked with. See you soon!_

_❤Ariel_

Her name was signed with a flourish and her 'i's dotted with bubbles floating upwards because she thought he'd smile at the sight of it. That dropped off, she asked her device to lead her to the karaoke bar. She was grateful for the vocal assistance because she didn't fully understand the technology. She was sure Vetis could explain it to her, but she didn't want to impose too much on him. Thus far, she had remained human, but there was still a lingering fear when she went to bed that she would wake up a mermaid in the morning. Ariel hoped that singing would take her mind off of those fears, at least for a little while. She knew she would definitely forget all about it when Vetis arrived. He had that effect on her, along with making her feel funny inside. She liked it quite a bit because the only thing she could describe it as was a stronger version of what she felt when she saw Prince Eric. Ariel was starting to think that maybe if she kissed Vetis, it would be true love's kiss and it would break the spell Ursula had put on her once and for all.

"You have arrived at your destination," came the pleasant female voice that had guided her from her room.

"Thank you!" Ariel replied, though the device didn't respond further. The screen went dark, which she had come to equate with it sleeping. Satisfied that she wouldn't need it for the time being, she put it down on the table closest to the door and promptly forgot all about it. Ariel had dressed herself in a sea green nightgown that she thought was just a dress and hadn't worn anything on her feet. Human clothing was still very confusing. They had items that looked like her seashell top, but she didn't know how to work the hooks so she just ignored them completely. She was doing just fine without those funny clothes.

She noticed the two girls talking by the stage so she went to the bar, assuming they would sing first. That was how concerts worked at least, and she didn't want to sing until Vetis arrived. She liked singing for him best, anyway. Behind the bar, she found a lot of pretty colored bottles and different kinds of glasses, but she didn't recognize any of it. Figuring none of it would hurt her, she found a pretty bright green bottle labeled Apple Pucker and poured some into one of the tiny tasting glasses. Drinking it all in one gulp, Ariel made a face at the taste. 

"Yuck!" It was sour and it tasted funny. Definitely a no to the green stuff. Putting that bottle back, she took another tasting glass and found a clear bottle labeled Watermelon Vodka. She poured a smaller amount into the tasting glass and sipped it carefully. It wasn't too bad, but it still wasn't the best. Perusing the other bottles, she tasted three more before giving up hope on finding something she liked. She moved onto the soda dispenser and discovered that she liked the clear fizzy one labeled Sprite. Deciding she wanted to try it with a little bit of color, she poured some of the apple pucker into it to turn it green. It was still kind of sour, but she mostly only tasted the fizzy soda, which was what she liked best.

She sipped on her drink and watched the door like a hawk, waiting for Vetis. Maybe he knew more about the different colored bottles. 

Being human sucked. Vetis couldn't get anywhere unless he _walked_. His hair was _awful_ and his _clothes_ \---ugh. He couldn't stop staring at the limited selections in his closet as he tried not to let it get to him that he was potentially stuck this way. The soul wasn't bothering him as much as the fact that he didn't think that he could live with all the limitations imposed on humanity and what happened to him when he died? Did he go back to Hell as a soul? Was he going to wind up getting redeemed and land in _Heaven_ as a soul?

He had to push both thoughts aside because they were giving him a panic attack; neither was something he could survive. Vetis couldn't make it as a soul. That wasn't an option. This whole thing had to go away. He had obligations as a member of the Court. His souls counted on him and his family counted on him and _Verrine_. What was he going to tell her if this was how he was stuck? She'd probably try to kill him for being a liar since who would believe Corruption had become a human?

Vetis heard a swishing sound that distracted him from his wardrobe, his head cocking to the side as he tried to figure out where it had come from. It was odd to try to do even the simplest things as a human. All their senses were duller. He had thought he was going blind when he had first tried to get around after waking up from the fog only to realize that his night vision was virtually gone. The sound seemed to have come from a note that had been swiftly slid under his door which informed him he had a potential date waiting when he picked it up.

"Guess she's getting a kick out of this whole thing," he laughed a little awkwardly as he read Ariel's invitation.

The thought that he could decline crossed his mind before he realized that if he did, all he'd be doing was sitting in his cabin imagining terrible futures for himself where if he went, he'd at least get to be charmed by the little mermaid's company. She was adapting well to humanity in some ways, not very well at all in others. For Vetis, the deciding factor was that if he didn't show up, someone else might take advantage of her innocence and that was _not_ happening.

Throwing on a button-down shirt with a vest and a pair of jeans, Vetis wet his hair to slick it back off his face the way he liked and made his way to the karaoke event. It was apparent that more than a few passengers were enjoying themselves by the time he got there. It was also apparent that Ariel had been trying whatever the bar was stocked with while waiting on him. Her cheeks looked flushed as he approached her and he wondered if she was a touchy drunk.

"Nice---dress," Vetis offered with a grin, "How's the bar treating you? You find anything you liked to drink before I got here?" 

Ariel was finally starting to feel the effects of the alcoholic taste testing she'd done earlier, making her a bit more whimsical and giddy, bringing out her very bubbly personality just a touch more. She was glad to see Vetis arrive through the doors so much so that she squealed in delight and came around the bar to throw her arms around him, happy as could be.

"Kevin! I'm glad you could make it," she said with a warm smile, pressing a kiss against his cheek. At least she had the presence of mind to use his fake name instead of his real name. The last thing she wanted was for him to be angry with her or for those girls over there to know his true name. Bad things could happen if they knew that.

"You look so handsome, you know. You always look handsome, but you look exceptionally handsome tonight." Ariel stepped back to spin a little in her dress to show off for him, looking over her shoulder so that she could look at his reaction to the way she looked. "I found something fizzy called Sprite and it tastes good with this bright green stuff called Apple Pucker. It's a little sour, but there are some other brightly colored bottles that don't taste very good either. I thought maybe you would know more about what the different bottles are and what might taste good?" Ariel looked hopefully up at him before giggling just a little. He always had all the answers for her and now wouldn't be any different.

"Come take a look at all the pretty bottles. What do you want to have to drink? If you don't know what you'd like, I found these small glasses for taste testing. Some of them are really sour though, so you don't want to fill it all the way to the top. I did that for the Apple Pucker when I first tried it and drank it all in one shot, but it was so sour and icky. I don't know how anyone drinks it all by itself, but it does taste much better when there's a lot of Sprite mixed in." 

"I do know what's in the bottles," Vetis offered, stammering a little as she remembered his alias and her arms had been tight around him, her lips were soft against his cheek, and she was _so innocent_ , "Hey, I'm Kevin. The way that she said. I'm going to go show Ariel what the things behind the bar are called. That's what I'm doing. Now. Yeah. Thanks."

He had called it out to anyone interested, but he was sure that he was being paranoid about the number of people who might be watching them for any nefarious reason. As far as he could tell, everyone aboard had been rendered the same way: human. That meant they were all on equal footing and there was no reason for him to bother trying to give a reason for spending time with Ariel. Actually, from the way that she looked and the vessel he was currently in, there was no reason that anyone would question why they were hanging out together.

Sometimes it helped that he was in a younger vessel. At present, it would help because no one would question why Kevin was spending time with Ariel since they looked really close to the same age. They might wonder why _she_ was spending time with him, but he? He'd be fine from any wondering. If he could hold himself together, that was to say. His face was pretty flushed and he was not feeling very confident in his ability to spend time with Ariel.

Leading the way back around the bar, he held up a bottle of vodka and looked until he found some juices in a cooler before finding a bottle of cranberry juice to show her, "My favorite drink is called a Cape Cod. It's cranberry juice and vodka. The vodka is the clear liquor. It's really strong. I like it because I'm a big fan of the tartness. I think you might like an appletini from the sound of things. I could make you one if you wanted? It's the apple pucker you like with vodka which I like so it's a little of both worlds."

That was idiotic to say, but he grinned at her over his shoulder regardless. Ariel wasn't the kind to judge which was what made her fun to be with even if he couldn't feed from her since he was nothing more than a mortal man. 

He was stammering again, and then the way he sounded so awkward announcing what they were going to do to the others in the room! Ariel grinned and stayed close to him, reaching to loop her arm in his or else having her arm in his because touching him just made her feel warm and fuzzy. She didn't care what anyone thought about them spending time together because she liked him, just like she didn't care who everyone else spent their time with. Ariel had the kind of mindset that if she wouldn't do it, other people wouldn't either.

"Cape Cod? The water is always cold over there. Daddy took us once that far north, but I never wanted to go again because of how cold it was. I think I'd like the appletini too, but could I try some of your Cape Cod?" Ariel gave him a big smile, hoping to convince him to share just a little bit. "I like having the best of both worlds," she added, stepping up behind him to watch over his shoulder. She wasn't quite tall enough though so she pushed herself up on her toes and put her hands at his waist to steady herself as her chin came to rest on his shoulder.

"I've been meaning to ask you, could you teach me how to swim? I've never had legs before and human clothing is so confusing too. I don't know how to wear any of it but the dresses are easy to figure out." She pulled away whenever he had to move but she always came back to him once he was standing still because she wanted to be close to him. She figured if he didn't like it, he would say something.

Once he was finished making the drinks, she moved to his side, giving him a flirtatious smile even though she didn't know it was very flirtatious. Ariel was just thinking about how much she wanted to stay close to him and sing for him. An idea came to her then and she couldn't help voicing it right away. "Will you sing with me? I bet karaoke has duets! It would be a lot of fun, don't you think? I'd really love it if you would!" 

Hell was starting to seem as if it were a sunny vacation spot compared to being a human young man with an innocent young woman hanging all over him while wearing a _nightgown_. It was possibly the most excruciatingly uncomfortable moment of Vetis's entire life. He could feel Ariel touching him as clearly as if her skin were branding him and had to start thinking about disgusting things in order to manage to handle it without humiliating himself beyond all reparations. He actually had a moment where he forgot how to make a Cape Cod.

Looking blankly at the bottles, he finally remembered half-vodka, half-cranberry juice, and a wedge of lime for garnish which he squeezed slightly into the glass before fixing it to the side, "I can let you try it. Sure. Sure, that's fine. I don't sing, but I do know how to swim as a human. With legs. Not that I've ever tried to swim as a human without legs but---"

Vetis laughed awkwardly before offering the glass to Ariel. He couldn't keep talking to her without saying something about the nightgown. It was wrong of him not to tell her, wasn't it? She wouldn't likely get embarrassed. The only way that she'd ever learn was if someone told her the truth and Vetis had never been overly attracted to lies. Lying didn't do anything for him at all. It was a means to an end on some occasions, nothing more. He did enjoy it when other people lied. The innocent he preyed upon? If they lied to spend their time with him? That was thrilling.

"I should tell you that you're wearing a nightgown. Speaking about human clothes. Your dress isn't a dress. It's supposed to be used for sleeping or, yeah, worn at night when someone is sleeping. You should also probably wear shoes. Feet can hurt if they're stepped on or if you cut one because someone isn't careful. Also, Ariel?"

He tried to think of how to ask her without sounding ridiculous, decided to start working on her appletini instead. It was sour apple pucker and vodka over crushed ice. Vetis had always liked it better out of a frozen glass, but he worked with the ice instead since he didn't think he could handle poking around more behind the bar without having drank half of it first.

"Are you wearing anything under that dress?" he asked really, really quietly as he moved closer to her to slide her the martini.

Something was making him nervous, but Ariel had only the very slight idea that she was the cause. "You don't sing at all? Why not?" she asked curiously as she took the glass from him, taking a sip immediately after. It was tart, just like he said it would be, but she liked it too. "Oh, that's nice. I can see why you'd like that," Ariel offered, giving him a smile before offering him the glass back. It was his, after all.

When he said that she wasn't wearing the right clothes, she glanced down at her 'dress' and blushed lightly. Even in Atlantis, going out in her nightclothes wasn't exactly acceptable, even by her standards. "Oh, I didn't realize. Thank you for telling me about my clothes. I think I have something for my feet in my closet." She was lost in thought trying to figure out what clothes in her room might be more appropriate for leaving her room. She could understand having different clothes to sleep in; she had a softer top to wear like most mermaids did. It was just strange to think that humans wore dresses to bed.

Ariel was drawn from her thoughts when he asked if she was wearing anything beneath her nightgown. Her eyes widened, suddenly worried that she'd done something really wrong. The martini went ignored as she shook her head. "I did something bad, didn't I?" she asked, her lip quivering just a touch because she felt like she'd done a lot wrong in such a short time. What she was really upset with, however, was that she might've embarrassed Vetis with how little she knew about humans and their way of things.

Maybe she could ask her device to help her dress tomorrow? Or should she go change now? "I'm sorry. I can go change." Not that she could guarantee that she'd pick out something better next time, but she would try.

"I used to sing. I don't sing any more because it wasn't something that I really enjoyed. I associate it with a time in my life I didn't like or that wasn't really me or I didn't feel good about. I don't know how to describe it so you'll understand. My voice isn't very good in this body though so it's really better that I don't like to sing."

That was an excuse Ariel would understand. She should be able to understand anyway since her own voice was a work of art. Vetis had good money on Ariel having spent her entire life being praised for the quality of her voice. No one got as good at singing or at any artform as Ariel was at singing without having been told and told often that they were good at it. Chances were pretty good that she was raised to be a princess who had obligations in the court which included being able to be useful in court functions; considering that princesses weren't often asked to work in the court, Vetis imagined that Ariel was expected to _entertain_ at the palace so she'd probably had training or lessons to help her perfect her craft.

Something he couldn't expect Ariel to understand was why it was a big deal that she wasn't wearing anything under her _nightgown_ that she was wearing as a _dress_ while in public. He knew that merpeople didn't spend a lot of time in full clothing since their genitalia were largely obscured from view by nature the way that Naga were or dragons. It was all new to her, being human, and he didn't want her to feel bad because he was a perverse demon who was spending too much time thinking about her slim legs and whether or not there would be a tuft of red hair between them that matched the hair on her head.

Taking a deep drink of his Cape Cod, he tried to phrase it in a way she'd understand, "It isn't that you did something bad wearing the nightgown, Ariel. People wear clothes differently all the time. That's not really anything to worry about. I just wanted to tell you so that you would know. I did promise to tell you about being human, remember? What kind of teacher would I be if I didn't tell you that you were wearing sleep clothes to a party? The, umm, underclothes though? That's a bigger deal. You don't have to leave or go change or---I'll show you what you should wear later, okay? It's just that people might get the wrong idea if you don't wear them. They'll think things about you that aren't true, Ariel. That's why you should wear something. Under your dress. In public." 

"I'm sorry that it's such a sad memory for you. I'll sing for the both of us though," Ariel promised him with a warm smile as she put her hand on his forearm. The last thing she wanted was to be a bad memory for him, but she would do her best to bring some brightness to those unhappy memories. "What do you like to do? Is it something we could do together?" They only had so much ship to explore after all and what would happen then if they didn't have new things to discover anymore? It was too early to be worried about that, but she was, at least a little bit.

If he was thinking about anything other than how to explain human apparel to her, Ariel didn't even consider that a possibility, though if he'd asked her anything, she would have answered honestly and without hesitation. She just didn't know any better and she trusted him implicitly. She watched as he took a deep drink and she reached for her martini then, taking a sip before nodding along. She remembered how kind he was! Of course she had! How could she forget? "If they want to know something about me, why don't they just ask?" What did underclothes have to do with anything?

"If you show me what to wear, I'll try them on. I don't want you to have the wrong idea about me," Ariel said, sincerity crystal clear on her face and in her words. "I want you to have the right ideas about me, that I'm pretty and that I sing really well and that I'm adventurous. And I don't want babies. Those are the things I want you to think about me," she insisted, reaching for his hand as she smiled at him. She didn't know what the wrong ideas were in human culture, but she certainly didn't want him thinking she was ugly or cowardly or boring. Those were just the _worst_ , right up there with wanting babies.

She thought about what he'd said for a moment longer. "I don't have to wear them in private, right? Like in my room?" Ariel found herself wondering if being with Vetis counted as being in private. She wanted to be comfortable with him, but she had a feeling the underclothes would take some getting used to. Hopefully he wouldn't think less of her for taking time to adjust. "What else might give you the wrong idea about me?" she asked curiously, taking another sip of her martini. 

_I like to spend time with you_. It was a nice line; Vetis would have used it to answer Ariel if it had been a line, too. That was one he didn't mind saying to someone if he were working to get his talons hooked into their soul, but it wasn't a line where Ariel was concerned. She made him want to do nothing more than pass time with her. Vetis thought he'd rather spend an evening listening to Ariel talk than doing anything else in the world. There wasn't anything more enticing to him that he could think of which was okay with him in the strangest way possible.

He'd have called himself a pathetic loser prior to having met Ariel, having experienced being around her to feel the warm light of her pure, pure soul. The moment he'd first felt that though? It'd been all over for him. Vetis felt as if he were drawn to her as easily as a moth to a flame or a dumb puppy chasing after the constantly bouncing ball. There didn't feel as if there was anything shameful in that for him. He was Corruption. It only made sense he should be attracted to the most pure soul around.

"I guess I like to do things that might be boring to you. I like to people watch. I like to pretend. That's fun. I don't know. We could play a game some time. I could teach you how to party crash. That's always exciting for me since I like being able to meet new people while they don't really know who they're meeting. Umm, people never really like to ask questions directly if they can just get the information from gossip. It's a little rude to ask people things about that. Sometimes. Most of the time, really."

Mostly people were cowards. That was the real truth of the matter. They didn't want to ask someone anything when it was easier to assume the worst. It was the kind of thing that amused Vetis to no end though he knew that Ariel, with her kindness, wouldn't find it very amusing. She was too sweet to want to believe that others would take pleasure in tearing down their fellow man.

Giving a cough that he tried to turn into a chuckle, Vetis hoped his palms were dry as he let Ariel hold his hand, "I, umm, don't think less of you, Ariel. You already told me why you don't really know about human clothes. I get it. Believe me. I get it. It's just other people who won't since they don't know you're a mermaid who's found her way out of the water. If you were to, well, you could wear anything you wanted in private. In your room. Where no one could see you. Or if you were with someone you really, really trusted. I won't get the wrong idea about anything since I know you. I know. I figure I can ask if I do. Or might. I'd ask. I would. Do you like dancing?"

Vetis could dance. Formally. He could grind. That wasn't something he was going to try with Ariel, but he could do it. He just didn't want to talk about whether or not it was potentially okay to be in a room with Ariel while she was not wearing appropriate clothing. As far as he was concerned, appropriate clothing for her should include turtlenecks, full pants, possibly even a burka. Those were very much in style in the Middle East. He wondered if he could convince her that they were fashionable? 

"We could watch people!" Ariel latched onto that idea like a starfish onto a smooth surface. "That could be fun, because then you could also tell me if I can act the same way they do!" That sounded like a good idea to her. "Or if I can dress they way they do. It could be fun! I like playing pretend, too. I didn't think you would like to play pretend, but it's fun isn't it? I used to pretend I was human. Now we can pretend to be other things, maybe a prince and a princess who has to save everyone on the ship? That could be fun. I wonder if we could get anyone to play pretend with us."

She took a sip of her martini as she pondered how best to ask for another playmate. Maybe she should leave that to Vetis because he knew humans better than her. Ariel figured they could find someone when they time came. There was plenty for them to play pretend together, without anyone else. "Why is it rude to ask people when you're curious about them? I ask you a lot of questions about you. Isn't that how humans get to know each other?" Ariel thought it incredibly odd that humans would trust the word over someone else instead of the person they wanted to get to know.

She was glad that he let her hold his hand. "I'll just have to introduce myself as a mermaid, that way everyone will understand the way you do," Ariel replied earnestly, deciding that problem was solved. She took another long sip of her drink while he told her about when she could wear whatever she wanted. It wasn't until he asked about dancing that she spoke again.

"Oh! I love dancing! Sebastian ran an underground club when my father had banned music from Atlantis and I took all my sisters there. We danced all night long! It's fun!" She set her mostly empty martini glass down and pulled him back around the bar to the dance floor. Someone was singing a fun, upbeat number that Ariel easily found the rhythm to, wiggling her hips and moving her arms. Feet were so awkward! She didn't know what she was supposed to do with them, but she was still incredibly happy to be dancing and she looked to Vetis to see if he was enjoying himself too. 

Innocents didn't think before they spoke. It was one of their most endearing qualities to Vetis---until he had found himself human and unable to hide his reaction to it. He was sincerely getting tired of being half-hard, persistently, humiliatingly red in the face, and all-too-aware of how other people were seeing all of that when looking at him. _That_ was getting old. He was sincerely amused at the thought that Ariel might walk up to someone and ask if they wanted to play pretend with the two of them.

Vetis almost thought it'd be worth it. _Almost_.

"Sometimes I wonder if you're playing with me," he admitted with a shake of his head, "The only reason I know that you're not is because you're so innocent. I still know that even though I can't really see the way that I can when I'm myself. I am trying to remind myself of this _all the time_ , but you have to know that you aren't making it easy on me, Ariel."

He followed her out onto the dance floor while telling himself not to look at either side of himself. There was no need to look around to see what other people thought about them. It was very likely that they were thinking that he was an idiot, she was out of his league, and it didn't matter that she was obviously drunk dancing since a girl that hot? Had to know how to dance. It was a necessity since those girls were always taken out when they were young enough to learn without looking foolish.

Taking her hand, he tugged her toward him, guiding her into a spin, "Around and under and yeah, hey look! We're dancing! That's something we have in common though I really wish I'd chosen a taller vessel right about now. Are you, umm, tall for a mermaid? Is that a thing? Are there 'tall' merfolk? I'm usually about the same height as my sister all the time though that's pretty much coincidence more than anything else. I think we just have similar tastes. Who knows, if she shows up? You guys might hit it off and we'll play pretend with her. I wouldn't suggest asking anyone other than a person you know really, really well to play pretend with you because they won't think you mean it in an innocent way. They'll think sexy way. I do think it's a good idea to tell people you're a mermaid though. On this ship? That's not nearly the strangest thing you could introduce yourself as. Trust me. There are some interesting people aboard."

There was a wide variety of species on the boat that had sent even Vetis's eyebrows raising. He thought Ariel could be amused by people-watching with him. Possibly. He'd just have to watch what he told her. He tried to guide her into a simple dance without getting too close to her or bumping into anyone as he thought. She had a natural sense of rhythm. That definitely helped.

Ariel wasn't sure why Vetis was so red all the time, but she liked it when he made her all red so she assumed that he liked it too. The cause, then, was unimportant as far as she was concerned. That was why she looked confused when he said she wasn't making it easy on him. "I'm not playing with you, Kevin. I _want_ to play, but that's for later. I don't mean to be doing anything wrong." She hoped he wasn't angry with her.

Still, he followed her onto the dance floor, so he couldn't be that mad at her. That warmed her heart quite a bit because she didn't really know what she was doing wrong or what he didn't like. She thought he liked all of her questions and how much she didn't know because then he got to teach her. He took care of her, and she was so appreciative of that. Vetis had nothing on Eric, or how Eric had made her feel. She was grateful for the circumstances that led to being here with Vetis, even though she did sort of miss her family.

Ariel's eyes widened as he guided her into a spin and then she laughed because it was _fun_ and he was teaching her something new. "Again!" She spun once more and then stepped in close, taking his other hand in hers as he guided her through a simple dance. "We have tall merfolk, short merfolk, skinny merfolk, and not so skinny merfolk. There's all sorts. Some merfolk have darker skin than others, too." Her entire face lit up at the idea of playing pretend with Vetis' sister. "I hope she shows up! Did you and your sister play pretend growing up?" she asked, though she sort of regretted her question because he said people thought playing pretend was a sexy thing. Humans were very weird if they thought about sex all the time.

"I'll do that, then. Maybe it will help. Do humans always think everything is about sex? What about other species? For merfolk, sex always means having a baby unless they can't because their parts are broken. That happens sometimes. Or if a mermaid likes a mermaid, or a merman with another merman. They can't have babies, but usually when that happens, those couples get to adopt any merbabies that are orphaned. It's a good system that works well for our communities," she explained, hoping that humans and other species had similar systems.

Overall though, Ariel was really enjoying herself and she was really glad that Vetis came to spend time with her. He was very cute and she liked the blush on his cheeks. It made her feel special. More than anything, she really really wanted to kiss him. That feeling caused her own cheeks to turn red and she tried to put it behind her because she wasn't sure how he'd react to it. Instead, she just smiled and started to hum along with the song that was being sung in the background.


	4. Swimming Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vetis promised Ariel some swimming lessons now that she's got her legs.

Things should have been getting easier with Ariel. Vetis had been spending a lot of time around her and he had spent time with her even when they had been human together. He really thought that he should have become accustomed to how it felt when he was near her except that he wasn't, not at all, and he kept being _stupid_ with her. At this stage, he had probably told her more information that could be used against him than he'd gotten from her which was all because he was _a complete idiot_ around her.

  
Knocking at her door, Vetis shuffled from foot to foot, trying not to feel like a moron in his flip-flops, swim shorts, and t-shirt, "Ariel? I thought I'd come by to help you pick out something to swim in."

Ariel was very excited to go swimming with Vetis. She'd finally gotten comfortable with her legs, as if they were actually _hers_ and she'd been walking on them her whole life. She still wasn't all that sure how to dress them, but that was okay. Vetis was always there to answer her questions. She'd put on her seashells, two deep purple shells the perfect size to cover her breasts with a small cord that wrapped around her body. That was mostly for decoration though. She had on a pair of purple panties as well, in the hopes that she'd chosen correctly. Her bright red hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she was barefoot when she answered the door.

  
"Hi! I'm glad you're here. I think I got it right?" she asked him hopefully as she stepped back and did a turn for him to show off what she was wearing. "Did I?"

  
"They match," Vetis managed, his voice rising slightly at the end as if he were questioning himself.

  
She had picked out a pair of underwear that would most likely turn completely clear when wet. Vetis tried to imagine how they'd look on her saturated from the pool only to feel immediately disgusting about it. He didn't want to think about exploiting Ariel that way. Everything that he enjoyed about her was her innocence. It was different to feed off convincing her to do things that were questionably pure than letting her innocently walk around to where anyone could see her intimate parts only because he wouldn't mind finding out what they looked like himself.

  
Flushing slightly, he said, "If those get wet, they'll be, umm, see-through. You wouldn't want to wear them the way that they are since people would be able to look at you. Almost the same as if you were naked. Do you want me to make them into swimming bottoms? They'll look mostly the same. I'll just use a little magic to add lining that's---it would keep you covered. If you want."

She grinned when he said they matched, proud of herself for getting that part right. It seemed she hadn't gotten the right fabric though, something he kindly offered to help her with. "You don't have to if it's too much trouble," Ariel replied, taking him by the hand in order to lead him over to the dresser, which had the second drawer from the top open. It was full of undergarments and swimsuits because she'd taken all of the similarly designed things and put them all in one place. After their conversation at karaoke, Ariel had started to wear panties with far more regularity, though bras sometimes still seemed like a nuisance to her. They just poked at her awkwardly sometimes and the hooks were always hard to get, which was why she liked her shells. Those just stayed in place!

  
"Here, do I have any that has that lining you were talking about? I don't want to be naked for everyone to see. Merfolk don't approve of that, either. Having a tail is so much easier, I think. I don't have to worry about covering up everything down there because it just hides away until I'm ready to make babies. I guess there are downsides to being human." Ariel sighed and looked up at Vetis, looking a little contemplative. Ultimately though, she decided against asking him how boys dealt with hiding their baby-making parts. She didn't want anything to ruin their afternoon fun.

  
"Is there anything else I need before we go to the pool? Oh! Shoes. I forgot shoes. I always forget those, but at least I'm starting to like them?" Hopefully it would get easier to remember them. "I like the flat ones best. The others look dangerous."

  
It was _not_ too much trouble. Even if it would have meant negotiating a deal with an archangel, Vetis would have ensured that Ariel went out in a swimsuit bottom rather than her pretty little panties. That was _not_ happening. The idea of someone else seeing her naked made him want to do things that he typically never did as he wasn't a warrior. Vetis had _never_ been a warrior. That wasn't his purpose. It wasn't something he was Created to do nor was it something that he was interested in doing. He'd avoided fighting as much as possible. It wasn't _for him_ so why was he even _thinking about it_?

  
"I'm sure, really, really, really sure, we can find you something to wear that's better," he decided as he started picking carefully through the haphazard tangle of her clothes until he found a swimsuit bottom that shade of purple that he handed to her gingerly, "There. Those are already lined. They're about the exact same color too so they'll look nice. I'm sure. You just have to wear shoes up to the pool and then you can take them off. You don't swim in shoes, okay?"

  
Vetis thought about telling her that she could swim in special shoes, but that would open up more questions. There was no sense in confusing her. It was easier to think about diving shoes than to think about the fact that he'd been handling her panties, too. That was _a lot_ better subject as far as he was concerned. He supposed it was at least good that she'd started to realize that she _should_ wear underwear. Vetis wasn't sure he could handle her walking around without them anymore than she already had.

Ariel had all the faith in the world that Vetis would find her something suitable. "Thank you," she said warmly, taking the bottoms he held out to her. She _almost_ started to change in front of them, her thumbs already hooked beneath the waistband of her panties, when she remembered that he sometimes got really really awkward about her not wearing things on her lower half. "I'll um, go change in the bathroom?" Ariel smiled and then leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek before bounding off to the bathroom that was just off her room. She even remembered to close the door most of the way!

  
It only took her a few seconds to change and then she was back in the main part of her room. The panties she'd been wearing went back in her underwear drawer and then she went over to her closet, kneeling down to pick out shoes that would work best for the trip up to the pool. "Hmmm. I don't know why there are so many. These will work right?" she asked, holding up a pair of white flip flops somewhat similar to what he was wearing on his feet.

  
"Okay, I think that's everything. We can go swimming now?" She never had any intention of putting on _more_ clothing, mostly because she was used to just being in her seashell top. Wearing more clothes than that just seemed silly to her, even if it was human custom.

  
"Thank _you_ ," Vetis clarified as his skin flushed from the peck on his cheek.

  
He resolutely turned away from the bathroom to look around her room instead when he noticed she'd left her door cracked. His heart was still pounding in his chest from how she'd nearly taken her clothes off right there. That was not okay. Vetis was beyond, _beyond_ glad that Ariel had realized that she should change in a bathroom. The mermaid was the most tempting soul he'd been around in what felt as if it were his entire life though he wasn't sure if that was because he hadn't seen a pure soul in such a long time or not.

  
Vetis wished his sister were around to give him her input. That would make everything easier on everyone involved. Verrine would likely mock him hard enough to have him wish he'd been thrown to the archangels instead of asking her opinion on one little mermaid, but it'd be worth it in the end for his peace of mind.

  
Looking at her sandals, he nodded, "Yeah, yeah, totally. Those are great. Sorry. I just spaced. Thinking about my sister. Do you want to swim in the pool on the upper deck or the indoor pool? I like the one on the upper deck since I like the sun up there, but I'm good either way."

  
Good was probably not the right word, but whatever. It was as close as Vetis was getting.

He turned pink again and she liked it when that happened. He made her skin turn pink like that often, sometimes even just from the way he looked at her like she was the most beautiful creature he'd ever met. She liked that she could inspire the same kinds of feelings in him, same as she enjoyed not making him uncomfortable. Vetis never made her uncomfortable and Ariel wanted to ensure that she didn't intentionally make him uncomfortable.

  
"I hope she comes soon," Ariel replied when he mentioned thinking about his sister. She gave him a smile and reached for his hand once her sandals were on her feet correctly - she'd accidentally put them on the wrong feet at first. "I've spent my whole life not really being able to see the sun from the surface. Sometimes I'd sneak up to the surface anyway, to talk to Scuttle, but mermaids can't just swim on the surface and play. Daddy says it's because fisherman will try to hook us or kill us. I'm safe on this ship though, with you, so I want to make the most of it," she added, leading the way out of her room with her hand still on his if he let her. She liked touching him, liked being close to him. Ariel thought he liked it too.

  
"The upper deck is that way, right?" she asked him, pointing to the stairs that would lead up.

  
Nodding in reaction to Ariel's question, Vetis focused on the closest way to the deck pool. Thinking about how far it was to get from Ariel's room to the deck was easier than thinking about her hand touching him. She was pure enough that it almost hurt to touch her. Vetis had experienced that before. He knew how it felt to have his skin burn faintly from contact with someone that belonged to the light; it was a feeling he'd craved in the early days of his damnation though in his later years he'd spent more of his time chasing the thrill of Corruption rather than the baser needs of Man.

  
"I hope she shows up in a way and in a way I don't," he allowed as they made it up to the deck to approach the pool, "I love her. She's the best of us as far as I'm concerned. It won't make her happy to be trapped here on this ship with us though and she won't be amused by the possibility of being stuck here for longer than she'd like. Her---gift isn't something that allows her to be able to wait on anything well."

  
The upper pool was oddly shaped. It had a very shallow end that seemed to be more of a wave pool than anything else though there were no discernible vents to show where the wave action was being directed from and that led to a set of underwater steps which moved into a deeper section of water which a guest could swim out there to get into the deepest section where there was a diving board. The whole structure looked as if it were almost peanut in formation. It got very good sun exposure and the water always seemed warm without being hot. He was a fan of it.

  
"Do you want to wade in or are you more comfortable sliding into the deep end first?"

Ariel beamed brightly and led the way, keeping him close with a tight grip on his hand. She listened to him talk about his sister, his worries, but she was still optimistic. "We'll just have to make things fun for her. You'll see. If she comes, then we'll make sure she's happy so that you're happy too," she promised warmly. She'd do anything for Vetis, including doing her very best to help entertain his sister if she did show up so that she was happy here too.

  
They came up to the pool and she thought it was another kind of magic that allowed it to mimic the wave of the ocean. Immediately, she was drawn to that end, so when Vetis posed his question, she didn't give it a second thought. "I want to go in this end," Ariel said, pointing to the wave pool side as she turned to look back at him with a smile and a gentle tug to his hand. She walked out of her flip flops without thinking, mostly because she didn't want to wear them anymore. She let go of Vetis' hand as she stepped down into the wave pool. The water felt so nice, warm and comforting, very much like coming home. Waves crashed around her feet, to her ankles, but then she waded deeper, until the waves were crashing up halfway up her thigh.

  
She was so happy. The joy she felt was so much so that her cheeks were starting to hurt with how much she was smiling. "This is _awesome_!" Ariel laughed as she knelt down in the water, the waves crashing on her torso. As her seashells got wet, they didn't change shape or texture the way a human's bathing suit would have. "Oh, I never thought I'd feel this again. The feel of the waves crashing against me." He was so lovely for giving her this. "Thank you, Kevin," Ariel said honestly, using his cover name since they were out in public.


End file.
